Under Down Under

An Epic Adventure into The Hollow Earth by
Gerry Forster
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ONELIGHT.COM PUBLICATIONS
An Epic Adventure into The Hollow Earth
Gerry Forster
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PART ONE ANTE ABYSSUS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
PART TWO THE PIT
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
PART THREE SANCTUM SANCTORUM
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Illustration of AVISTAR
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
End
Gerry Forsters Bio
Undara
Under Down Under Poster
!llustrations of Chas, Drew 8 Errol
Onelight.com
Seekers
C O N T E N T S CLICK ON TO GO TO CHAPTER/AREA
bookcover artwork by James G. Gavin
INTRODUCTION LESLEE DRU BROWNING
EDITORIAL JAMES G. GAVIN
PROLOGUE GERRY FORSTER
IIllustration of Hazel & Marianne
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Copyright Gerry Forster 2002
All rights Reserved
The right of Gerry Forster to be identified as the author of
this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form, or by means (electronic, mechanical, photo-
copying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written
permission of the publisher or the author. Any person
who does any unauthorized act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and
civil claims for damages.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not,
by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or
otherwise circulated without the publishers or authors
prior consent in any form of binding or cover than that in
which it published and without a similar condition
including this condition being imposed on the subsequent
purchaser.
All characters in this publication are fictitious
and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead,
is purely coincidental.
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Gerry Forster
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For Greg, Leslee,
Helen, Doreen and Bruce,
with my sincere thanks for
their constructive comments,
their help, encouragement
and, above all, for their
patience
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Stories make our world. Stories are never memorized but always remembered, and they are the
means by which we explore the world of things, beliefs, and ideas. Stories educate, entertain and some-
times explain the unexplained. Legend and myths combined over time can reveal truths that lift the veil of
ignorance from our eyes and show us that which we have missed.
An author brainstorms when he writes a story. He pulls from within him distant memories of ancient
pasts, sprinkles in present day events, and, oftentimes prophesizes with his pen, giving birth to stories
about future events. These stories hold clues to what we may expect to discover ]ust around the corner of
life. !t has happened many times, probably the most famous was the story of the Titanic, which was
written well before the big ship sank. Fiction writers write about things they see, or feel, they describe
events that most likely aI true, but must be categorized as fiction nI) because they have yet to be proven
in the eyes of science. But, for a writer to describe an apple he must have seen and tasted the apple
sometime during his life. !n this country apples are real, but ! would bet that there are peoples in this world
who have never seen an apple, let alone tasted one, and would therefore tell you, if you were to describe
to them an apple, that the apple did not exist, thus, for them, the apple is fiction. ! ask you then, can
anyone say that when an author writes fiction it is completely false, a total fantasy, a simple fabrication of
the imagination? ! think not.
Gerry Forster is a storyteller in every meaning of the word in that he sparks our imagination, he
brings to life what others only dare to dream about. He makes us sit up and take note and wonder-could
his story be true? His characters are unique and lively in that they are from different cultures and countries
that band together to bring the reader into a world where most dare not tread. They do this by introducing
the idea that we are not alone in this world, that we are not the only inhabitants of the Earth. Gerry
Forsters ÙnI Dwn UnI is a writers quest searching for the Hollow Earth. Nany will say that a Hollow
Earth does not exist, cannot exist! ! ask why not? Can any one scientifically prove that a Hollow Earth does
not exist? No. There is no hard evidence anywhere that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the world
we call Earth and walk upon daily, is not Hollow. No one can say for sure that there is not a complete
civilization that lives beneath our feet. No one can say that the earth is not layered with cities on top of
cities.
Gerry Forster has no doubt in his mind that a Hollow Earth exists. His book sings the song of one
who has seen what most have yet to perceive. Through the window of his mind the vision came, pure
stories in the wind, currents of awareness from a less familiar part of the Earths realm guided his pen. He
welcomed the whispers and put his pen to paper so that we may all en]oy his story. He had no struggle
with this material, no strain. He makes no effort to persuade us to understand, to prove or disprove, to
believe or to disbelieve in his work. He wrote what the whispers had to tell and what belongs to him is here
in his work. His hope with presenting us with ÙnI Dwn UnI is that it may connect those of us who
read it with the Source from which it flowed, and perhaps allow us to imagine that a Hollow Earth may
indeed be very real.
Leslee Dru Browing, healer and author of Silent Thunder", Alices Adventures into the Hollow
Earth", and Walks with Nikos". Creator of Seekers Site.

FOREWARD to Under Down Under"
by Leslee Dru Browning
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!magine today a representative in Congress standing up and announcing that certain regions of the
Earth should be explored for the existence of other civilizations beneath the surface. And, by doing so the
prosperity and well being of all surface people will be dramatically altered forever, in the process of coming
in contact with such beings.
Such a situation did exist in U.S. Congress in the 1830s and polar expeditions through government
funding as well as private organizations were undertaken. !n that time many of these proponents in search
of lost lands kept safely guarded reports of worlds beyond the poles which have been deftly passed down
to a susceptible public as fiction. !n which time the popular belief of a paradisical hollow world, was
tenaciously dethroned by a very hot place of liquid magma, raging fire - the mind stuff of superstitious
Christian dogma easily turned over in the Hades setting of ancient lore. !n time this myth of a hot central
sphere tightened its hold on the mindset of the surface population through the aid of the world controlled
education system. One may not think that all of mankind can be made ignorant by an èducation system?
We are often told stories when we are children to smooth over the harder realities. And the realiza-
tion that the Earth as well as neighboring if not distant planets are hollow with living civilizations, some of
which are very advanced, is too much for `the many to absorb.
Too many human minds at a very young age are kept weak in a harsh mental climate, whether by
the belief that they have a life of probable doom through nuclear attack ahead of them or their dreams of
happiness will always land on barren deserts. They are taught in leading universities that unless they are
able to enter into the corporative world as true professionals they have no future. !n other words their rites
of passage to the !nner Earth treasures of royal awareness have been consciously, by a duplicitous frater-
nity of willful souls, removed from the children of the surface. Due to the influx of those who feed off the
energy of others, these energy vampires have paralyzed humanity as a whole and have given humanity a
bad name in the universe. Now, humanity must earn dearly in pain every drop of knowledge and happiness
it has, or ]oin the likes of those whom only feed on others. Unless, there is an opportunity for them to move
into the energy rich realm of the !nner Earth, mankind only lives a certain number of years and then leaves
a legacy of children, to repeat the same cycle again and again. The perennial cycle of the human species is
a seeming and often ludicrous perpetual state of consciousness that is destined to an imbalance of great
heights and great lows. Such is the way of the surface earth prison.
We humans have established ourselves a culture which is meant to survive. Truly the survival of
industry is paramount in this relationship which allows for the interests of research and then adaptation.
The difficulty in this arrangement is adaptability which should be the first of the components - has taken
last place, due to the thrust of ongoing industrial momentum. And in all of this the fear of the loss of ònes
lifestyle and the support of ones children is the crucial underpinnings of the continual drama of this life, in
day and out.
Those who are educated to the degree of understanding pathology relating to human stress are
clearly aware in the use of the manufacturing and implementation of disharmonies. !t is as one organism
being self created and manipulated, by an off center virus, runs a One World Nachine, a decoy of true
consciousness. The populace is caught in the tyranny of the continual ad]ustments by this world surface
machine, as is exercised in increments on the populace as a whole. One, in which by no one is left out.
For the One World Nachine to work efficiently it was and is now necessary to keep the Earth `solid.
"There Has Never Been True Evidence of a Solid Earth"
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There have been numerous books of fiction written on deep cave dwellings and a proposed `hollow
earth. Writers Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. G. Wells, Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Jules verne, have popularized the
beliefs of mythological ancient kingdoms still existing beneath the Earth, where the adventurous mind,
body or spirit may boldly step into, through a secret often forbidden hidden passageway.
Gerry Forsters book Under Down Under" ushers in again the use of fiction to describe this probable
reality. Another genre of science fiction books on Hollow Earth is now trickling into main stream conscious-
ness, in the new hope that the !nner Earth is not only inhabitable by our human species but is indeed the
destiny of a gentle and peaceful people, who will be guided by their natural divine wisdom in the correct
use of Nother Earths abundant resources, the greatness and depth of which is still unfathomable by the
surface human mind.
Under Down Under", sends our minds through a series of eventful twists and turns into the depths
of the Earth through the portal of a dead volcano located in the northern section of the province of Queen-
sland, Australia, and into the pristine kingdom of ancient Giant Elders. A unique perception to the riddle of
a hollow earth and who and what exists beneath the surface, Gerry Forsters voice is a master story teller
that carries the reader through a labryinth of hidden perspectives, as the near future, the new dream,
reveals itself onto the central world drama, as it is turning, in our day.
-James G. Gavin
Editorf Publisher
Onelight.com Publications
2002
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Gerry Forster
Prologue
Science continues to ponder the great mysteries of the universe that still surround
us, even in this advanced era of the 21
st
century AD. We have landed men on the moon
- or at least rockets and probes - not everyone is convinced yet that NASA actually landed
men there - and we have landed robotic crawling explorers on the planet Nars, and have
satellites orbiting that planet photographing its surface and relaying them back to us here
on Earth for processing and study. We are anticipating actually landing humans on the
Nartian surface within the next decade or so. And yet, even amid all this marvelous hi-
tech development, we still cannot say for sure ]ust what lies a mere 600 to 800 miles
beneath our feet as we stand upon our own plane Earth!
There have been many speculations over the past hundreds - nay - thousands of
years as to how our home world is actually formed internally. Some have asserted quite
firmly that the interior is made up of a vast 3000-mile diameter ball of nickel-iron which is
under such enormous pressure that it cannot solidify and remains semi-liquid. They claim
that this, in turn, is surrounded by a layer of dense liquid rock called the outer-core. This
is then enclosed in a thick layer of magma and it is this molten rock that finds its way out
on to the outer crust of the planet as lava", e]ected by mountainous, recurrently-inflamed
boils" and sores" upon the Earths skin, which are called volcanoes or volcanic rifts.
Some geologists definitively claim that the Earths temperature climbs very rapidly
the deeper one descends down a deep mineshaft, such as those in the South African
diamond and gold fields, and that it must therefore continue to climb to temperatures
where even the rocks run like water. So that if one were to descend, say, a mere twenty
miles, one would probably die by being slowly cooked alive, as if in a pressure cooker. But
of course, the thoughtful student would asK Hw an !n) pssIDI) Knw !ns !nIngs I/
!n) nav nvI Dn aDI ! g wn an pIv u! !ns spuIa!Ins7 For that is all
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they are.
However, there are many others who hold entirely different views. For ]ust as many
years, there have been men who believed that the world is hollow inside. That we dwell
upon the outside of a spherical shell of rock some six to eight hundred miles thick. There
is plenty of sound historical and religious basis for such a belief, even if not yet an accept-
able scientific one. Nany religions around the world, even today, subscribe to the notion
that the interior of the Earth is where the spirits of the dead go, to await ]udgement by
their particular gods.
The ancients especially held this view - the Egyptians had their dark underworld of
the dead, where green-skinned Osiris rules and where Anubis and Horus wait to weigh the
heart of a man against a feather. !f they are found to be in equilibrium, the soul may enter
Osiriss afterlife kingdom. !f not then it will be consumed and destroyed forever by the
Nonstrous Ammit, hybrid Devourer of the dead. The Greeks also had their Underworld
of Hades, which was approached via a ferry poled across the Styx by Charon. And so also
did many other ancient religions entertain very kindred concepts.
Even today, the devout Christian or Hebrew fears being transported to Hell or Sheol,
where armies of demons under the command of Satan, delight in torturing the souls of
the damned amid a vast cavernous world of darkness and flames. Nany of the people in
this present day world believe that such a terrible place lies beneath their feet.
However, there are many, too, who believe that this inner world is a place of great
peace and beauty, a veritable Paradise. They believe that it is peopled by a race of
spiritual beings whose souls are filled with grace and light, and that their race was the
origin of humanity. They believe that this might well be the original Eden from which our
forefathers were expelled for their sins! Today, there is a growing body of belief that this
might be a race possessing incredible technology. This, together with all the other spiri-
tual powers of the ancients that have been lost to sinful humanity here on the outer
surface for many millennia!
They are also thought to be the same entities who emerge and appear from time to
time in amazing space faring craft - which we in our abysmal ignorance call UFOs - in order
to maintain a watching brief upon the lunatic depredations of our degraded external
species. Their greatest concern is for the wellbeing of the beautiful planet which they and
we ]ointly share. The heartless despoilers of it come a very poor second.. That is,
except for those precious few beautiful souls upon the outer surface who really love and
care for this planet and the wonderful array of amazing life forms it bears. And, of course,
for that Great Creative Spiritual !ntellect whose Handiwork they - an w - all are!
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Nany now believe that it is these !nner Dwellers who will intervene when Nankind
finally oversteps his bounds, and who will bring about a great purging of our careless and
destructive race from the outer surface of the Earth. Whether these people are the
avenging Angels of God who will pour forth the seven vials of His Wrath upon fallen
mankind - as is prophesied in The Biblical Book of Revelation - is yet to be discovered. !f
so, that terrible Day of Wrath may not be long in coming! We can only wait and see...
Or do we really need to wait? !s it perhaps possible that the gates of the Garden of
Eden, Nans original birthplace, might once again be open to those who are prepared to
attempt the ]ourney? There is but one way for us to find out the truth, but the way must
first be discovered. !s it, as some Hollow Earth devotees are convinced, by means of the
vast openings that are reported by some seemingly dependable witnesses to actually exist
even to this day, at the poles of the Earth? Or can entry into the !nner Earth only be
attained by spiritual means? Neans such as soul Astral Travel, or Spiritual Teleportation,
or simple mental Thought Pro]ection? Or if we can contact these !nner Beings, can we
perhaps ask them to come and fetch us in the physical body to their realm by means of
UFO transfer - this latter method could perhaps account for the thousands of reported
cases of alleged UFO Abductions" ! They may not have been actually abducted at all,
but have simply asK to be transported to this wonderful inner realm!
Who knows, perhaps some wishes an be granted? After all, isnt a prayer simply
]ust such a wish? And if these !nner entities are the angels of God, can they not concede
such fervent prayer-wishes to us - if it is His Will? Naybe its possible to have ones wishes
come true in such a way. if we can only DIIv strongly enough! One cannot help but
recall that great song: 1/ Yu WIsn Upn A 5!aI. But are there any BIu FaIIIs out
there listening?
Sadly, for most of us theres only one way in - and to get to Paradise, you have to go
through Hell first! Heres wishing you a safe ]ourney, Pilgrim!
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PART !
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vien, retro a me e lascia dir le genti."
Come, follow me and leave the world to chatter."
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CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER ONE
Suddenly, the blond young giant, staggering and stumbling under the weight of his
wounded companion, found himself emerging from the almost stygian darkness of the
tunnel. He pushed on toward a densely interwoven screen of dangling tropical lianas and
vine leaves that delineated a faint pearly semicircle of light. At last he could see again!
But he wasnt out of danger yet. He could hear their feet pattering and splashing along
the long black passage behind him, their calls and whoops echoing back into the depths
as they hounded him down. A final supreme effort of brute strength, and he burst through
the matted tangle and out into the open, beneath a pale wintry sky. Before him he could
see a wide, open grassy area edged on both sides with tall spindly-looking trees, and
ahead lay a broken outcrop of red rock. That would have to do. He was tiring rapidly and
was desperately in need of some sort of cover where he might be able to rest awhile -
even if only for a few minutes.
He charged, gasping out loud in agony and weariness, across the open clearing
through a deep carpet of lush, mauve-green grass, and clambered up the sharp, un-
weathered rock, panting and blowing like a grampus, trying to hold his friends bloodied
body over one shoulder whilst using his free hand to grasp at the razor like edges of the
stone slabs. Ny God, how they nuI!! At the top of the outcrop, he paused, dripping blood
from gashed hands and feet, to risk a quick glance behind him. Surely his pursuers must
be almost upon him now! To his amazement, they were n!! He looked back at the
almost concealed tunnel entrance, and could ]ust discern the vague movements of a host
of gesticulating, brown lizard-like forms behind the screen of vine stems and leaves. He
could hear their vicious hissing screams of rage and frustration quite clearly, even from
here.
Why had they stopped? Another hundred yards and they could be upon him and
his poor battered friend, tearing and slashing them with sharp fangs and talons. But
something was preventing them from following him. Wna!7 Then suddenly it hit him.
Could it be the IIgn!? Were they afraid to venture out of the deeply-shadowed gloom?
That was !T! They ]ust couldnt stand the L!GHT! Now as he looked back more closely,
he could see that two of the demonic, filthy, scaly creatures had rushed headlong through
the mat of vines after him. They were now staggering blindly about, squealing in pain,
covering their hideous slitted eyes with taloned forepaws. Even as he watched, they both
finally blundered back in among the dangling lianas to re]oin their foul hadean brethren
within. Thank God for that! At least, a respite - /I nw!
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Painfully, Drew lowered himself down the other side of the ]utting outcrop. His cut
and bleeding feet feeling for footholds beneath him until they struck a flattish stone plat-
form. Then he was down, and in some sort of safe cover - at least for the moment. Now
he carefully lowered his friends bloody and bruised body down upon the smooth cool
rock, propping his poor torn back against a stone slab. Urgently he crouched forward and
placed his ear against his friends chest.
At least he was still breathing, and his heartbeat was still reasonably regular. Thank
God for small mercies! Now he was free to slump down to a sitting position and lean back
himself. God alone knew where they were, and how they were going to survive this
horrifying experience!
After a moment or two of blissful rest, he examined his unconscious friend to assess
what damage he had sustained. Thankfully, after a brief overall check, he found that,
apart from a multitude of deeply clawed lacerations and several large severe contusions to
Erbs head and body, nothing seemed to be broken. He would live, all right, but hed be
in some pretty awful pain when he came round.
His own in]uries were not much less severe and his body was aching all over from
toting a limp 1+-stone man over his shoulder. Like Erb, hed lost a fair amount of blood
during the fight and their subsequent flight along the labyrinth of foul, fetid tunnels. Not
to mention the severe bruising theyd sustained in their frequent skids on the slimy, be-
fouled rock floor, and blunders into protruding rocks.
Now he could relax a little on that score. At least they were alive, and safe for the
time being. But where wI they? He peered around their location. Astoundingly, he
discovered that they were perched upon a wide ledge of stone overlooking a precipitously
deep gorge. He crept painfully forward on hands and knees to look over the edge of the
rock platform.
A sheer drop fell away below him for at least a thousand feet, ending in a deep-
looking river, edged with luxuriant tall trees and bushes. To one side, a little further along
the ledge, perhaps twenty or thirty yards, a stream flowed out through a gap in the
palisade of outcropping red stone, creating a mini-waterfall as it plunged off into the river
far beneath. At least they wouldnt die of thirst! Slowly, Drew raised his weary eyes to
scan the horizon beyond the other side of the gorge. But now he was really staggered!
THP WA5 AO HOP1ZON1 All he could see was a endless vista of mountain ranges and
gorges asnIng into a distant blue haze where they gradually became lost to view! The
land ]ust seemed to go on and on - upwaIs1
!t occurred to him that he must be suffering some form of delirium. Perhaps he
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should rest up a while and try to snatch a few minutes sleep. !f their pursuers had
regrouped and followed them, they would surely have been upon them long before this.
Hed ]ust have to risk it. Tiredness swept over him in a gigantic wave. He lay back against
the rock slab next to Erb, and gazed up into the pale hazy white sky, where a faint sun
struggled to break through. !t was ]ust like being back in Scotland.
As he lay there reflecting upon such thoughts and images, his mind strayed back
over his life. A previous existence that hed almost forgotten in the horrendous place from
which they had ]ust escaped. He first recalled his home in the Queensland outback, and
then, suddenly, all the old memories began to return. His childhood and his father, a man
driven by ambition, whom he had only seen infrequently.. Ah, yes! !t was all coming
back to him now. Blurred childhood memories flooded through his mind as Drew slumped
back into a deep sleep..
* * *
Drews father, Alasdair NacDonell, was invariable away. Either on business-trips
overseas or entertaining in his Sydney Harbour-side mansion in between his endless round
of board meetings, and business functions while Drew was growing up. Drew often went
to stay with his father there, but he hated the place. Though he na loved sailing his 16-
footer on the Harbour during his brief stays with the Old Nan" during his teen years, prior
to being sent overseas to get a PIpI DI) ua!In.
His father had little faith in Australian universities, especially in view of the brash,
self-opinionated yuppies" they produced, whom he encountered every day in the busi-
ness world. Thus, like his father before him, Drew had attended Edinburgh University in
Scotland, from whence he returned with excellent degrees in Geophysics and Archaeol-
ogy.
Alasdair NacDonell was a tycoon of the old school", who had been raised on the
Queensland property himself, when it was a real /aII-InKum cattle-station, and had
developed a strange love for rock-hounding" in his spare time (of which his father al-
lowed him precious little) as a boy. Then, when he was sent to the Coast" to get the
decent schooling" his own father had missed out on. Alasdairs flair for geology was
nurtured by his science teacher, and attracted the interest of the Headmaster. He was
instrumental in getting Alasdairs father, Angus NacDonell, a tough Scots migrant whod
built up a prosperous cattle property from scratch, to allow him to go on to pursue his
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chosen sub]ects at university. But Angus insisted that Alasdair be sent overseas to Edin-
burgh University in Scotland. Alasdair took all before him and won Honours Degrees in
Geology and Economics. The rest was history.
Alasdair had shaped a great career for himself, first as a field-geologist for a giant
mining corporation, and then in easy strides into a senior position of management and
soon, on to the Board as first a ]unior then a senior director. Neanwhile, as his salary had
risen accordingly, he had made quite a few perfectly-timed investments in Corporation
shares. With his hereditary Scottish canniness, helped by a booming mineral market
during the 1970s, they swiftly multiplied into a fortune. Now he was the Chairman of the
Board, as well as a ma]or stockholder. However, old Angus did not live to see Alasdairs
meteoric rise to fortune. A heart-attack carried him off during his early fifties, but his
sturdy Scots wife, Elspeth, helped by a dependable foreman, had still managed to keep
the cattle-station running reasonably well for a decade or so.
Now, alas, she had ]oined her husband. They shared a little white-railed family
burial plot under the shade of a great and leafy river red gum, not far from the fine
homestead they had labored so hard to build up so many hard years before. Alasdair
often took time out from his busy schedule to visit the property, which was now his own,
and to pay his respects at his parents graves, standing hatless under the rustling boughs
gazing out across the wide open country as the hot winds ruffled his own already graying
locks. Hed received many tempting offers for the lushly-pastured property, with its
excellent grazing and sweet, permanent water. But his love for his parents, and the bitter
toil and backbreaking effort they had sweated into the place, would never permit him to
consider such an insult to their memory.
His own wife, Nary, a city-bred girl, had eschewed the country life preferring the
comforts of the fine old Sydney home hed purchased, with its fine views across the
famous Harbour, its balmy cooling summer breezes, and the convenient society of her
friends. !t was there that she gave birth to Andrew. !t was there too, that she quite
suddenly succumbed to an attack of spinal meningitis, leaving a broken-hearted Alasdair
to wonder how he could possibly raise his little son alone.
He now possessed a cattle-property he had neither time or desire to run, and a small
child in dire need of parenting. However, the same resourcefulness that had helped him
build a business empire soon came to his rescue. Consequently, Alasdair found himself a
bright young station-manager named Bob Jackson to run the family cattle-station /I him
- on condition that Bob and his wife raised a family of their own in the dear old home-
stead! Bob was a fairly rough young diamond, but he knew his ]ob and he was totally
honest. Alasdair gave him full reign to run the GIngaII) property and look after it as if
it were his wn, and to pocket the profits for himself and his family.
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All Alasdair asked in return was that they care for and love the place as nIs father and
mother had done, and that from time to time he himself would be welcomed into their
midst. Not as a benefactor but as an avuncular figure, whenever he felt the need to
escape the money-hungry business madhouse of Sydney and touch his home-roots for a
day or two. He already had his own company plane, so such escapes were easy.
But much more important was his stipulation that they ap! an IaIs nIs )ung
sn, DIw, as n / !nII wn //spIIng - at least until he was old enough to be placed in
a suitable residential boarding-school at Charters Towers, near the North Queensland
Coast. During the quarterly school-holidays, Drew was to be welcomed Home to the sta-
tion homestead, and loved ]ust as if he were their own flesh and blood.
Fortunately, Alasdair had chosen well, as he did with all his people, and the young
manager, Bob, proved his trust to be well-placed. He and his wife soon grew to love the
little blond-haired lad ]ust as if he wI their own, and when they began having children,
Drew became an elder brother-figure to them.
Drew grew up to early manhood, and was dispatched off to Britain to receive the
same educational opportunities at Edinburgh University that his father had been granted.
There he applied himself with vigor and acquitted himself so well, that his father keenly
hoped, in due course, to welcome him home and draft him straight into his own corpora-
tion, so that when the time came, Drew could take over the reigns.
Unfortunately, Drew had other ideas. His greatest love in University had been the
study of Archaeology, and, much to Alasdairs disappointment, Drew displayed little inter-
est in his fathers huge mining corporation or in the massive wealth it generated. His
driving passion in life was to search Australia for traces of its ancient prehistoric past - a
past which reached back far beyond the advent of the aborigines, into the very dawn of
time itself.
During his time in Edinburgh, he had become a member of a covert student discus-
sion-group, who would talk far into the night about those arcane, mysterious millennia
which they all felt must long pre-date the orthodox AInaIg) their professors dwelt
upon, which began in the Olduvai Gorge in East Africa and ended with the Roman Empire.
Before long this same revolutionary thinking had also spread into Drews other pri-
mary sub]ect, Gpn)sIs. He had been drawn into an !nternet group of like-minded
rebels who were interested in a very different structure for the Earth and the planets, than
was didactically taught by their rigidly-orthodox tutors. They dared to contemplate an
Earth (I vn an) / !n !IIs!IIaI pIan!s} which was noI a solidly-packed body, filled
with molten magma surrounding a large nickel-iron core!
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However, Drew remained mindful of his fathers expectations regarding his scholas-
tic attainments and the subsequent good degrees. Because of this, he somehow man-
aged to so school his mind and compartmentalize his thinking, as to be able to fully absorb
all the IquII curriculum of orthodox Geophysics and Archaeology. Yet, at the same
time, he was able set up an entirely separate, but equally-powerful, mental hard drive",
on which he could also squirrel away his newly-acquired knowledge of hypotheses and
concepts regarding the Hollow-Planet theory. !t was a terrific mental strain at first, trying
to Kp a /! In D!n amps but he carried his fathers brilliant mental genes, as well as
his grandfathers stubborn, unbending will to succeed, and thus he was able to focus upon
both views with equal strength of mind.
Some of the others fell by the wayside, but Drew ploughed ahead regardless, con-
centrating upon his official lectures by day, then focussing his mind upon the xa! pp-
sI! in the evenings. Only one was able to keep up with Drew in this. A rather brash yet
bright American youth from Detroit, Nichigan, whose father was an automobile million-
aire. This was III Pss BuIIugns, a large, square-]awed young giant, with close-cropped
ginger hair and freckles, who shared a room with Drew.
Errol and Drew had hit it off together from Day One, and had become close as
brothers as their time in the great university progressed. They were both studying the
same sub]ects and, because their minds were very closely attuned, they competed in the
friendliest sporting fashion to outdo each other in their studies. As a direct consequence
of this, they both fared extremely well in their finals, passing in all sub]ects with excellent
degrees. They went everywhere together, and en]oyed their weekends exploring the
land that featured so strongly in both their heritages.
Errols mother was herself of Scottish descent, her parents having migrated from
Aberdeen to Canada soon after their marriage. She had first met Errols father during a
business conference in her home city, Toronto, where she was then the PA to a Canadian
lumber tycoon. !t was love at first sight, and Errols father wasted little time in the
formalities of a lengthy courtship. !nstead, he swept her off her feet in a whirlwind
romance and, within three months, made her his bride. Thus she had soon found herself
installed as the mistress of a fine lakeside mansion in the lushly wooded countryside of
northern Nichigan, waited upon hand and foot by a wealthy American husband who adored
her. Errol duly arrived, and, after a far more lavish childhood than Drews had been, he
was sent off to college. Then, having proved himself to be both a fine scholar and an
irrepressible girl-chasing hell-raiser, he was sent, at his mothers specific request, to round
out his education in Scotlands strongly- disciplined Edinburgh University - at precisely the
same point in time as Drew.
And thus developed a bond of close friendship, seasoned with a liberal dash of
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healthy competition. What one did well, the other endeavored to do better, in or out of
classes. They both got into the usual undergraduate scrapes involving drink, girls and
pranks. They learned scuba-diving and rock-climbing during their holidays, too, at both of
which sports they became highly proficient. !t was through them that they learned self-
reliance and discipline, and how to take care of themselves in tight corners. And they
both ]oined the same UnIgIun evening study-groups of taboo sub]ects - of which
the internal HIIw aI!n was by far the most fascinating.
There was only one member of the great Universitys faculty who knew anything of
their extramural studies. Professor Dinnwiddie was both Drews and Errols tutor in Geo-
physics, and had somehow stumbled upon their ghastly secret. He had confronted them
both with their In/aIInaI upIII!) an pI!n in trying to Iun wI !n `naII nnn-
/ImI!) an !n nns / aamIa a! !n sam !Im." What had they to say for them-
selves in mitigation of sa appaIIIng an InsuI! !waI sun a gIan naIIw sa!
IaIInIng as InDuIgn UnIvaIIsI!), n7
Errol had turned bright crimson and was momentarily struck dumb, so it fell to Drew
to explain that they wanted to hear D!n sides of the Geophysics story. They heard the
orthodox theories by day, and studied their far more intriguing alternatives by night.
When Dinwiddie scathingly asked him what more intriguing alternative there could possi-
bly be to the magnificent Geophysics curriculum taught at Edinburgh, Drew hesitated.
Weel, mon! Oot weth it!" roared Dinwiddie. Whats sae damned fascinating that yed
both waste yer ain valuable time - an man aIn - in boggling yer brains weth it till the
wee hours, when ye ought tae be relaxing your theck heids in honest slumber in raidiness
for honest study?"
!t was then that Errol final found his voice. 1II tell you wn), Prof!" he said in his
Detroit drawl, and using the abbreviated title that Dinwiddie detested. !ts because you
smart guys dont teach us a goddamn !nIng about the 1nnI aI!n! You ]ust stick to the
same old goddamn bunk they do everywhere else! G WnIzz, man! ! could have stayed
Home and learned all this stodgy, orthodox old crap at Nichigan! Dont you guys have an)
sense of adventure? Hell, ! could .."
At this point he had to shut up, because Professor Dinnwiddie, a rather heavy man
in his late forties, had suddenly turned a peculiar shade of mauve around the gills, and
appeared as if he was about to have an apoplectic fit. They were both horrified that he
might keel over in front of them, so contorted were his features. Drew was ]ust about to
shout for a porter to call an ambulance, when Dinnwiddie finally managed to give tongue.
To their astonished relief his purpled visage was creased by a gargoyle grin. Then he gave
vent to a loud guffaw of rumbling laughter.
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Oh, n!" he snorted. Not that confoonded Hollow Airth" blether all over again!".
He clutched, weak with mirth, at the edge of his desk. He then went on to tell them that
this sub]ect had been cropping up ever since the publication of U.S. Admiral Richard E.
Byrds aIIg Secret Diaries" of his mysterious flight beyond the North Pole into the
!nner Earth. virtually every new batch of students that had enrolled since for the Earth
Science course had its fair sprinkling of fanatical Hollow Earth lunatics. Pairhaps," he
added, with his renowned syrupy sarcasm, the Univairsity should mebbe conseeder opening
a brand new depairtment daidicated tae the !nner Airth? Weeth both of ye as its haid
lectors an tutors, ocourse, eh?"
He was still rumbling with mirth as he ushered them out of his study. !f aiver ye
decide to gae in sairch oyonder place, ma puir wee deluded loons, be sure and let me
know! Ah might even be taimpted tae come along weeth ye, even if ainly tae prove ye
baith wIng! Ah could do wi a guid laugh!"
Followed by the Professors echoing rumbles of laughter, Drew and Errol retired
fuming to their room, swearing a dark oath together that, one day, they would make
Dinwiddie eat his words.
However, Professor Dinwiddie continued to coach them both with unabated dili-
gence, patience and forbearance. And, when the time came for their finals, they both
sailed through effortlessly, and had graduated with considerable merit, if not honors.
Edinburgh and Professor Dinwiddie had done them proud, and when the day arrived for
them to depart he bade them both a warm and moist-eyed farewell. A farewell that was
every bit as warmly and poignantly returned by Drew and Errol, who had come to regard
OI DIn DIns as a greatly respected father-figure.
!t was a somber day when the two parted company at Londons Heathrow Airport,
Drew to board a Qantas flight for the long trip back to Australia, and Errol to take the far
shorter transatlantic flight home to Detroit, via New York. Before making for their sepa-
rate flight-lounges, they en]oyed a couple of last beers together in the main terminal, and
vowed to keep in close contact, promising to visit each other once they had sorted out
their respective careers and settled down to make their different ways in the world. Then
Errols flight was called, and they bade each other farewell with a final brotherly bear-hug.
Soon, it was Drews turn to board his own flight home to that wide brown land Down
Under. !t was a very long and wearying flight, and he had plenty of time to think about
the life that awaited him upon his return. His father had arranged to meet him at the
airport in Sydney, despite his usual overcrowded schedule of endless business meetings
and conferences. He had told Drew over the phone before he left Edinburgh, that he
would like him to spend a week or two at his Sydney home, so that they could discuss
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plans for his future. He had made it clear that he expected Drew to ]oin the corporation
and undergo a crash-course in top-management, with a view toward eventually taking
over as CEO when Alasdair decided hed had enough.
Drew thought long and hard about this. He had noticed, even before he left for
Britain as a callow youth, how much of his fathers time was consumed by the exacting
demands of running the giant mining corporation and its many subsidiaries. He had also
observed, during his periodic boyhood stays at the harbor side mansion, the terribly long
hours his father had to spend in the relentless round of meetings and functions that go
with wealth and power. He also knew, through a family friend who wrote to him confiden-
tially at the University, that his father had already suffered two minor heart-attacks but
had brushed them aside as mere inconveniences, instead of heeding them as warnings to
slow down. Drew was also aware that his grandfather, Angus, had died of a massive
heart-attack in his early fifties, and that his own father now well into his late forties, was
living a far more stressful life-style than n1s father had ever done. This gave Drew
furiously to think about his own future. Did he IaII) want to follow in his fathers foot-
steps?
!t wasnt as if he had no ambition, or that he disliked the idea of working for a living.
Regardless of the fact that his father aIIa) had far more money than he knew what to do
with and could retire whenever he chose, an let his son live the life of a playboy if he so
wished. !t was simply that, thanks to his years in the university, Drew had become imagi-
natively fired up to pursue a entirely I//In! goal in life. His studies, whilst certainly not
unhelpful in fitting him for the role his father had planned, had also drawn his interests
into a totally different sphere. He wanted to be an explorer - not looking for oil or
minerals - but for clues to the secrets of the ancient lost civilizations, and - Yes! Even
pI!aIs that might lead to the Earths legendary hollow interior, whence, he was con-
vinced, humanity had originated.
However, after Drews landing in Sydney, his tearful father had welcomed his muscu-
lar giant of a son home with such an enthusiastic handshake and a heart almost bursting
with gladness, that hed had to put all that on hold. At least, for the time being anyhow,
until an opportune moment arose when he might be able to explain it all to his doting
father. Somehow, Drew didnt think Alasdair was going to receive !na! particular piece of
news with any great enthusiasm. Hed have to wait and see!
!n the meantime, once the initial ]et-lag and the culture-shock of being back in
Australia had worn off , Drew was content to spend a few days lazing on the mansions
wide patio. He basked in the brilliant Australian sunshine and gazed out over the magnifi-
cent panorama of Sydney Harbour in all its vibrant colour and aquatic activity. He admired
the brightly-gleaming white sails" of Sydneys beautifully-designed opera-house, and the
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gigantic span of the Ca!-HangI, Sydneys world-famed steel suspension bridge. Hed
actually seen its mInIa!uI IIgInaI on a weekend drive with Errol down from Edinburgh to
Northumbria. !t was the main bridge over the Tyne river in Newcastle-Upon Tyne, and
had been built by the same British firm. !t too, had been nicknamed the Coat-Hanger"!
The harbor was alive with craft of all sorts and sizes, and Drew finally succumbed to
the siren-call of the white sails and the blue water. He happily rediscovered the ]oy of
taking his old sixteen-footer out of her boat-shed again and hoisting her sails. His father
had kept her well-maintained, and he was even more pleased to discover hed lost none of
his skills as a sailor. !t wasnt until he was returning from his first stimulating sail around
the harbor, that he noticed a huge sleek launch tied up to the ]etty down below the big
house. He could easily imagine what its primary function was. A highly expensive seago-
ing office and bar, kept solely to impress Dads overseas business acquaintances, and
aboard which, no doubt, many a big financial deal had been struck or a rich contract
signed. The whole idea suddenly seemed repugnant to Drew. TnIs definitely was not nIs
line of territory!
As he climbed the steeply-winding stone steps back up to the house, he realized he
was going to have to bite the bullet and bring his father up to speed on his own plans.
However, the first problem was to catch his father in a free moment. True, Alasdair na
taken a day off from the office to welcome Drew home and hear about his experiences in
Tn OI DaI! as he still persisted in calling England. (Despite Drews pointing out that
Scotland was definitely not a part of Tn OI DaI!!) During their single, aIms!
uninterrupted, day together, Alasdair had made no mention of Drews future. !t seemed
as though hed completely taken it for granted that Drew would fall in with his plans
without any dissention or demur.
!nstead, he had lounged around on the sundeck, cheerfully plying his now-fully
mature but dog-tired son with beer and liquor, and - in between frequent urgent monosyl-
labic business phone-calls - hed rambled on about the old happy days, when Drew was
a child and his mother still alive. Alas, he had plied the liquor considerably more to
himself, with the result that he soon fell into a drunken stupor and had to be helped to bed
by his son and his butler. The next morning, when Drew awoke long after sunup, his father
had already departed for another stressful day at the office. Once again, this reinforced
Drews view that the life of a big-shot tycoon was not for him. The sooner his father was
apprised of this fact, the better!
His opportunity finally came about a fortnight after his homecoming. His father
arrived home early one afternoon, complaining of a stomach-upset. However, when Drew
suggested calling the doctor, Alasdair pooh-poohed the idea, dismissing it as merely hav-
ing eaten n! wIsI), Du! ! wII at an important business lunch.
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Bloody wog-food!" he grumbled. Thats the only drawback with dealing with some
of these foreign ]okers! Youve got to eat the same garbage as them, or they regard it as
a bloody insult!" Then he leaned back and sighed massaging his midriff tenderly. Still,
! guess if ! have to eat bloody pig-poo to make a buck, ! reckon its worth it in the end! !
]ust signed a thirteen point five million-dollar deal today, son! Not bad pay for half a days
bloody work, eh?" He heaved himself up painfully and wandered out onto the sundeck.
Fetch us a six-pack of coldies, will you, son? Lets put our feet up for a bit and en]oy this
charming million-dollar view ! paid for in blood, sweat and tears!"
Drew did as he was bidden, and, as they sat back in the long armed sundowner
chairs, and quietly drank their ice-cold beers straight from the bottle, Alasdair was glad to
note that his Dad seemed a lot more relaxed and at ease. They sat in silence for a while,
then, ]ust when Drew was steeling himself to raise the issue of his future, Alasdair beat
him to the punch.
By the way, son," he growled in his gravelly voice. ! meant to ask you when you
fancy coming up to the office and having a bit of look around. Sort of get the /I of the
place, as it were, and let me introduce you to some of the fellers, eh?" He gave Drew a
sidelong twinkling glance. And the sheilas, too, of course! !ts time you got your feet wet,
son, before ! toss you in at the deep end!" Before Drew could reply, his father went on.
After all, ! wont be around forever, Drew, and theyll need to get used to the idea of )u
being the big boss instead of me." He paused to take another long draught of his beer,
and Drew seized the golden opportunity with both hands.
Funny you should mention that, Dad! ! was going to talk to you about it myself,
when ! got the chance!" He drew in a deep breath before launching into his carefully-
rehearsed speech. He outlined all the things hed discovered about himself and the world
in general at Edinburgh. The friends hed made and how he and they had found common
interests and ob]ectives in life. He told Alasdair about his fascination with the ancient past
and how he had planned, along with his mate, Errol, to go into it all on a more serious
level, beginning with the continent of Australia, which he believed had once been the
home of a great hi-tech civilization many thousands of years before even the aborigines
migrated there.
He explained how his professor of archaeology had really made them all sit up and
listen during his fascinating lectures, by painting wonderful word-pictures of the amazing
sites he had visited around the world. Hed told them that what had been discovered thus
far was merely the tip of a huge iceberg of lost history and civilizations that would put their
modern one to shame.
However, Drew was very careful to avoid making any mention of the Hollow Earth
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theory. Tna!, he felt certain, would be ]ust too much for his highly pragmatic father to
either understand or swallow.
Surprisingly, Alasdair had ]ust remained sitting there in total silence for over half an
hour, as Drew chatted animatedly, without making any of the angry protests or inter]ec-
tions Drew had been expecting. He ]ust leaned back in his armchair staring out across the
bright sunlit harbor as though his sons long-winded explanation had completely mesmer-
ized him. Drew glanced at his father expectantly, waiting apprehensively for the tirade
that was bound to follow once his words had sunk in.
!t was then that he noticed that the front of his Dads white golf shirt was soaked in
beer from the bottle that he held limply at an odd angle across his chest. At first Drew
thought hed bored him to sleep with his talk of ancient civilizations and so forth, but then
he realized that Alasdairs eyes were still wide open and unblinking. A sudden nameless
dread gripped him. Had the old man taken a sudden fit or a stroke or - or sm!nIng?
Drew shook his fathers arm vigorously to rouse him.
Then the almost-empty beer stubbie rolled out of Alasdairs clutched hand and clat-
tered noisily across the sundeck boards. His head lolled sideways toward Drew, as he
shook him, his sightless eyes seeming to stare blankly straight through his son. Then
Drew realized the truth. With an anguished cry, he leaned across and hugged his dead
father to his chest, rocking him back and forth like a limp, rag doll, whilst hot tears began
to well out of his eyes, and a gigantic lump rose up in his throat, choking back the useless
words of comfort he tried to utter.
And it was thus that Nainwaring, Alasdairs faithful old butler, found them, half an
hour later when he came out of the big lounge to see if they were ready to dine. Then he
hastened away, white-faced and stricken, to phone urgently but hopelessly for the family
doctor and an ambulance.
The doctor arrived a few seconds before the ambulance, but after a brief examina-
tion, he looked up at Drews pale anxious face and grimly shook his head, confirming his
worst fears. Then he nodded to the waiting ambulance men As they lifted his fathers
body on to the collapsible gurney, the dam of Drews grief burst, and he wept inconsolably
like a woman for his departed beloved father. The doctor stayed with Drew for nearly an
hour afterwards, but despite his consoling remarks, and the shot of powerful sedative he
administered, the dawn was breaking before Drew finally sank into an exhausted but fitful
sleep, under the careful watch of faithful old Nainwaring.
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CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 2
The news of Alasdair NcDonnells sudden passing spread like a bush fire throughout
Sydneys Central Business District. Everyone - even his numerous business rivals - mourned
the death of this colossus of the Sydney business world. Despite his overpowering and
relentless drive, and demand for perfectionism, he had been a man greatly admired and
loved by all who knew him, and none more so than his own loyal employees at CIanIanaI
CIpIa!In. Hed been a hard taskmaster, but a scrupulously fair one, and hard work had
always been highly rewarded in his empire.
At his funeral, there was not a dry eye in the packed church, except for Drews. His
tears had already been shed, and he was now living in a zombified state of self-reproach.
He never took his eyes off the magnificent oaken casket all through the lengthy service.
As he gazed, the minister paid the obligatory lengthy tribute to a man he had only met on
two previous occasions - his marriage, and Drews baptism.
Drews mind was in turmoil. He felt somehow responsible for his fathers death.
Had he so upset his Dad in not wishing to follow him into the world of big business, that it
had been the final straw needed to induce the coronary that had killed him? Then he
recalled how Alasdairs general manager had phoned to advise him about his Dads failing
health. He also recalled Alasdairs own words spoken within an hour of his death. That he
wuIn! D aIun /IvI. Alasdairs doctor had told Drew, later on that fateful after-
noon, how hed warned him repeatedly that his heart was in bad shape. That he mus!
slow down - even if it meant taking early retirement. But Alasdair had chosen to ignore
the warning. Hed taken his life into his wn hands by ploughing full-steam ahead - and
damn the torpedoes!
Suddenly it occurred to Drew that his father had Knwn he was dying on that final
day, and had come home expressly to be with his beloved son when the fatal blow finally
fell! None of it was in any way DIws fault. The old man had gone out the way he had
always wanted to go. Hed simply dropped in full harness, without any of the hoohah of
coronary by-passes, diets and rest, or even a whimper.
By the time Drew emerged from this doleful reverie, the minister had ended his
lengthy eulogy and the choir were now singing AmazIng GIa. Not with the customary
church-organ, grand though it was - but to the accompaniment of a lone Scottish piper,
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magnificently arrayed in full NacDonnell highland dress and clan regalia. The choirs
voices was almost drowned out by those of the huge concourse of business associates and
friends who had come along to send Alasdair upon his way to that final Stock Exchange in
the sky, and filled the church to overflowing.
The haunting sound of the pipes, the voices, and the words of the beautiful hymn
that had always been the family favorite, brought tears springing to Drews eyes afresh.
And they still flowed freely as he followed his fathers coffin down the aisle and out to the
waiting hearse, with the piper leading the way, playing the sweet, melancholy strains of
the sad lament Tn FIwIs / Tn FIs! upon his bagpipe.
A long cortege of expensive cars then followed the hearse to the airport, where
Alasdairs private aircraft was waiting on the tarmac. His was to be no elaborate show-
funeral. He had left strict instructions with his solicitor that, in the event of his death, he
wished to be buried alongside his father and mother in the tiny white-fenced graveyard at
the old family homestead up in outback Queensland.
As his fathers coffin was being transferred from the hearse to the plane, Doug
Edwards, the general manager, of Clanranald Corporation came over with a couple of
other senior executives to offer their heartfelt condolences to Drew, and also to say that
since Drew was now the sole heir and principal stockholder of the firm, he hoped for some
instructions from him regarding the future running of the corporation. To the already
distraught Drew, it was like a red rag to a bull. Do what the hell you like with the bloody
firm!" he cried in a flare of temper. !ts already killed my Dad - ! dont want any bloody
part in it! Yu can run the whole show for all ! care, Doug!"
But almost at once Drew regretted his outburst. look, Doug." he said contritely.
This obviously isnt the best time to discuss this. Just carry on as normal, will you, mate,
and !ll give you a call in a day or two regarding future plans." Then seeing that the trio
were still looking a little anxious, he added: Dont worry! ! dont intend /IIIng anybody! !
]ust want you all to carry on as if Da was still the boss. !f n trusted you, then so do !.
OK?" They all looked relieved at this and nodded gladly. Edwards took his hand and
thanked him, as did the others, then they left Drew to his gloomy task of supervising the
stowage of his fathers casket into the aircraft.
The flight up to Queensland took three hours, during most of which Drew sat beside
Nike, his fathers pilot, moodily staring down at the wide landscape passing below. But by
the time they crossed the mountainous border into his home-state, his mood had begun
to brighten up a little. Soon be Home nw, Dad!" he murmured quietly over his shoulder,
glancing at the pilot, Nike Butcher, with a wan smile as he did so. Nike smiled back
through his dark sunglasses and gave Drew a !numDs-up signal of approval. Wont be
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long now, son." he said. Then youll be back with Bob and Num again! Seein them again
ought to buck you up a bit, mate!" then he broke off for a while to talk over the radio,
calling in and checking his flight-plan with Brisbane Air Traffic Control.
This gave Drew time to think about his coming reunion with the two people he now
cared most about in the world. Bob Jackson na become a very close second father to
him, and Bobs missus, Joan, had been his Num in every sense, for as far back as he could
now remember. His own birth-mother was only a faintly-recollected ghost from his in-
fancy. Now she and his father would be reunited somewhere in whatever world followed
this one. This thought warmed his heart considerably, as did the thought of his father
shortly lying beside his own parents at Glengarry Station.
The flight was uneventful. Drew must have nodded off for a while lulled by the
steady droning of the planes twin-engines. The next thing he knew was Nike shaking him
by the shoulder, and yelling in his ear. Wakey, Wakey, Drew! Were Inere, mate!"
A dazed glance out of the cockpit window, revealed to Drew the lush spring green of
the home paddocks surrounding the homestead. Then almost below the plane, he saw
the bright metallic gleam of the afternoon sun reflecting off the aluminum-painted iron
roofing of the rambling house and its outbuildings. The sight of the dear old place nest-
ling in the cool shelter of several giant Noreton Bay Fig trees almost brought tears to
Drews eyes.
Nike took the plane in a low, swooping pass right over the shining roof, and they saw
Bob and Joan waving vigorously up at them from the large yard beside the main house. A
little further away stood four other gesticulating figures, wildly waving their Akubra hats in
the air. Then they were past, and Nike was banking the plane around in a wide circle to
line up his approach on the red-brown clay landing strip. Drew now found himself looking
down on the giant old River Red Gum tree, and the white picket fenced burial-plot which
it lovingly sheltered from the elements.
As Nike expertly throttled back the Beech King Air to touch down as gently as a
drifting falling leaf upon the smooth airstrip and taxied back toward the homestead, Drew
once more turned his head sideways and whispered gently over his shoulder toward his
fathers casket. Youre Hm, Dad.for Kps, this time!" Despite the engine noise, Nike
heard him and solemnly nodded in silent sympathy.
Then, as he switched off the ignition, a great silence descended over them. They
sat there for a moment, each wrapped in his own inner thoughts paying homage to the
dead warrior behind them. But the silence was soon broken when a small group of
people came hurrying over to the plane. Nike unbuckled himself and climbed stiffly out
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of his seat. Then, as he walked back to open the fuselage door and drop the steps, the
spell was broken and the sound of excited voices came flooding in.
Drew reluctantly broke off his silent communion and made his way to the open door,
running his hand lovingly along the smooth edge of the strapped-in casket as he passed.
As he stepped down from the plane, he found himself suddenly embraced tightly around
the neck by his tearful Num whilst his proxy father, Bob, clenched his hand in a grip of
iron. Welcome Home, Drew!" he said, his ice-blue eyes squinted against the morning
sunlight. Didya have a good flight, son?" he asked quietly. Drew could hardly answer
him until Joan released her tight stranglehold on his neck and stood back staring in plain
amazement. Ny word, Drew! Youve turned into a regular blooming gIan!!"
!t was then that Drew realized the swift passage of time. He could hardly believe
that it was over four years since his Num had last hugged his !nn scrawny and pimply
neck, and Bob had sat beeping the horn of his Holden utility in mock impatience. There
hadnt been any flash company executive aircraft to hand then.
Bob had to drive him 80-odd miles over bumpy dirt roads and tracks to the railway
station at Winton. There he had caught the Rockhampton train down to Brisbane where
he was to board a Qantas 727 to Britain. That had been quite a trip for young Drew - even
before he got onto the London-bound plane! Small wonder hed slept through a large part
of the 30-hour UK flight, broken only by brief landings at Singapore and Bahrain.
He recalled how Alasdair had flown up the previous week from Sydney via Brisbane
in his old Cessna. But hed only been able to spend a day with his son before flying
onward to Darwin on urgent business. Alasdairs parting words on that occasion had been
Have a good trip Home" and giveem hell at the Uni, son - and n! forget to bloody
wII!! Even if its only for mI mn)!" hed grinned then and hugged his son round the
shoulders, a hint of moisture on his cheek.
His fathers parting gift had been L600 sterling in ready cash, with the promise of
the same amount to be transferred every fortnight into an Edinburgh Bank of Scotland
account. Then his Cessna had rapidly dwindled into a tiny winking glint of early sunlight,
heading northwest toward the Northern Territory.
Now Alasdairs flying days were ended - unless G saw fit to kit him out with pair of
wings, of course! Drew s!III believed in God, thanks to Joans determination to make a
Christian of him. Theyd tried dinned some religion into him at the private Presbyterian
boarding-school in Charters Towers, but the cane hadnt really been the ideal tool for
spreading the message of Christian love and forgiveness. However, Joan had finally won
where the school had failed, and Drew now believed.
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!t was great to be back in the old station homestead again, far removed from all the
soul-searching stress and emotion of the past three days. His two remaining step-broth-
ers (!n Is! n, JIm, nw maIII an nI) vI /I !n sa asIn} and their two
sisters were over]oyed at seeing their big brother again, despite the sad circumstances of
his homecoming, and the fact that their beloved, if rarely seen, Uncle Alasdair was now
reposing in his coffin in the icehouse at the back of the house.
Though they were still really youngsters, they were already hardened and inured
enough to Death out here in the outback, to simply brush it aside as a part of daily life. !t
was an everyday event - an essential part of country-living to them. But it didnt stop
them making a great fuss of Drew, pulling his leg and cracking ]okes about his giant
stature. They ragged him mercilessly, regardless of the fussy shushing" of Joan, who was
concerned about Drews melancholy mien.
And, despite Bobs disapproving scowls, they eventually succeeding in bringing back
that old familiar twinkling grin to Drews tired, drawn features. Young Charlie, whod
been a cheeky ginger-headed little brat of eleven when Drew had left for Britain four years
earlier, then told Drew that there was an email waiting for him in the computer.
An maII?" asked Drew, taken aback a little. You mean youve actually got a m-
pu!I here?" Bob smiled down on him, as he slumped wearily in one of the big lounge
chairs. We might IK like bloody country hicks out here to you city-slickers, mate," he
grinned, but we have enough brains to be able to handle somethin as elementary as
a bloody computer! Dont forget wn it was that taught you how to pI-s! )uI vI-
III, Drew!"
!t was then that Drew recalled his father buying him a Tv and vCR for his last
birthday not long prior to him leaving for the UK. !t had been duly delivered and installed
in his bedroom, since Bob and Joan already had their own in the big lounge-room. How-
ever, Drew hadnt been able to master setting up his vCR to record at a specified time.
Bob had come to his rescue and shown him how it was done - out of the thickly illustrated
handbook that had come with the machine.
Youre supposed to read the DI) Ins!Iu!Ins first, you silly galah!" Bob had
hissed. What dya think they print èm for? Beats me what they teach you up at that
bloody flash college, mate, but its not mmn sns, thats for bloody sure!" Drew had
never forgotten that little lesson in good old practical gumption, and had applied it ever
since, even throughout his university career, where it had proved a very handy and reli-
able ad]unct to his bright intellect.
The email turned out to be from his old buddy, Errol Burroughs in Nichigan. ID-
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as Drew had come to call him - had ]ust heard of Alasdairs death over the international
business-grapevine, and had immediately phoned the Sydney house. Fortunately Nain-
waring, Alasdairs old retainer, who had supervised all Alasdairs domestic affairs, had
been able to give him the email-address of Drews proxy family at the Queensland home-
stead. !n his message, after expressing his deep sympathy for Drews sad loss, Errol had
told him that he was thinking of coming over to Australia to see him, as he was at a bit of
a loose end, having been granted a sabbatical year by his father. This had been a reward
for his fine achievement at Edinburgh University, before being drafted into the family-
owned automobile corporation.
He also had a pretty interesting proposition to put to Drew, but would tell him more
when he saw him. He understood Drews present grim situation, but when did he think he
might be back on deck and ready to repel boarders"? He went on to tell Drew all the
latest news from his own family front, and that he wasnt overly rapt in the idea of ]oining
the family business. Family tradition, Errol remarked, was a nII / a IaI) gamn
DusInss, wasnt it?
When he read this, Drew had to give a thin smile. `Good old Erb! He thought to
himself. À true-blue rebel, ]ust like me!
Nuch cheered by the message, Drew went straight off in search of Joan to see how
she felt about having a visitor come over to stay for a few weeks. He explained who the
visitor was, and that hed be no trouble. Joan, glad to see how much more chirpy the
message had made him, agreed there and then. But youd better ]ust check with Bob,
too, love." she said. We always decide things !g!nI in this family, remember? But !
know he wont mind!"
Drew found Bob in his office - a partitioned corner of the big machinery shed -
talking seriously on the phone to someone, leaning back in an old office chair with his R.
N. Williams riding boots resting on a corner of its paper-littered top. He looked fairly
solemn as he waved Drew to take a pew. After a few minutes, the conversation ended
and he put down the receiver. !ts tomorrow afternoon, mate," he said quietly. That was
the church minister from Winton. He says hell be able to get over ]ust after lunch to do
the service for your old man. So ! guess !d better get a couple of the fellers onto the old
shovels. Stan an Jimmy ought to be around somewhere, so would you give èm a yell for
me?"
No worries, Bob," replied Drew, but ]ust a quick question before ! do. !s it OK with
you if ! invite a Yank mate of mine over to stay for a few weeks? Hes the bloke ! shared
with at Uni over in Scotland, and he wants to proposition me about something hes cooked
up!"
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Bob smiled at him. Not a problem, Drew!" he said, Just as long as you check with
your Num first! Dont forget that I!s nI that makes all the decisions around here! Reckon
he could have your Dads old room, if thats agreeable to you?"
Drew had to smile wanly himself at this. !t had ever been thus when he was a
youngster. Joan always insisted that theirs was a democratic household, but Bob knew
who IaII) wore the pants around the place! ! already did, Bob," he grinned, and she
says its OK with nI if its OK with )u!" Bob smiled back at him at him then sighed
wistfully. !f only that was bloody !Iu!" he said. Now, do me a favor an roust up Stan an
Jack!"
The burial service went off without a hitch. !t was a peaceful scene, as the small
group of mourners, including all the station hands, stood around the freshly-dug grave in
the fenced enclosure under the redgums welcome leafy shade. The minister was an
elderly white-haired Scotsman, and Drew found it really inspiring to listen to his gentle
and soft Highland accent as he recited the burial liturgy over his fathers coffin. Then, as
Alasdair was finally lowered into the ground, tears began to roll down the cheeks of most
present. Although he hadnt really been a loveable man, he na been greatly respected
by everyone on the property.
There were no representatives present from the company, as it was strictly a family
affair. The big business world that had helped kill Alasdair had no place here. Drew had
been insistent about that. As the simple service drew to an end, Drew cast the fist
handful of red earth onto his Dads casket. The dull thud of the soil sounded a drum-roll of
final closure to his grief. !t was time to begin living again.
Up at the house, the mourners had the ritual repast of tea and sandwiches - or, in
the case of the hands - a couple of stubbies of ice-cold beer to toast Alasdair and wish him
a safe ]ourney to the Other Side. !t occurred to Drew that he hadnt yet replied to Errols
email. Fortunately, the familys email address was written on a yellow Post-!t note at-
tached to the front of the computer. He hadnt used an ordinary Windows" PC for years.
Those at Uni had been operated on straight-forward business-type systems like that of his
fathers at the Sydney mansion.
However, he soon got back into the swing of it and managed to fumble his way into
the Outlook Express mailbox, and send a cheery and affirmative reply off to Errols Detroit
email address. Happy to tell Errol he was welcome to come out ASAP, Drew included full
directions on how to reach Winton and the GIngaII) property. However, all Errol IaII)
na ! was let Drew know when hed be landing in Brisbane, phone him from there,
and then Drew would book his rail-ticket. He himself would be waiting to pick him up and
fetch him home.
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By nightfall, young Charlie darted triumphantly into the living-room waving three
sheets of closely-printed paper. Here you go, Drew! !ts an email from your cobber in
America!" he grinned. Drew had been like a cat on hot bricks since sending off his email,
so it was with much relief that he took the proffered sheets. The family sat around
watching him expectantly as he avidly scanned the lines of Errols reply. Their patience
was soon rewarded when he finally laid down the document and gave vent to a loud yell
of YIpp1 !s he coming over then, love?" asked Joan, laconically, smiling expectantly
and winking at Bob.
Ny WI, he is!" grinned Drew. Hell be here in /uI DImIn a)s !Im. And
whats more, hell be 1Iy1ng up from Brisbane! Hes hiring a pIan, so we can get around
and see the country together!"
Heyl Just have a bloody KK at the lad, Joan!" said Bob beaming broadly. How
long is it since we saw young Drew lookin so flamin chuffed? Hes as happy as bloody
Larry!" Joan smiled back at her husband in mild disapproval. Oh dear, ! do wish you
wouldnt swaI so much, Bob." But she was extremely glad and very relieved to see Drew
finally back to his old cheery self. Good on you, Drew," she said quietly, You deserve a bit
of a break at long last. !ll start in on getting your mates room ready first thing in the
morning, after Jims gone home."
Bob, who had disappeared into the kitchen, returned with three large bottles of cold
beer from his giant bar-fridge. He handed one to his elder son, Jim, who was staying over
for the night, then he passing the other over to Drew. Here you go, lad!" he grinned.
Wrap your flamin laughing-gear round that! ! reckon this calls for a bit of a bloody
celebration, dont you?" All three of them then clinked their bottles together in a happy
salute.
!t was long past midnight when Bob and Jim helped a very unsteady, but decidedly
cheerier Drew to his room and tucked him into bed. Bob hung back a moment after Jim
had left the room. Good on you, lad!" he whispered to the already snoring young giant.
LI!!I Man, Yuv na a Bus) Da)1 he crooned in a hoarse off-key whisper. Then he
softly added: Ny bloody a!n, you have, son!"
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The following four days dragged by on leaden feet, not only for Drew, but for his
step-family too. They were as keen to see this great friend of Drews as he was himself.
After the second day, Drew had taken to his old pastime of riding, something that Bob had
taught him as a child. !t was a knack that was very akin to cycling, in that, once learned,
it was never forgotten.
Bob had presented him with a large roan stallion that, despite a rather wicked way
of glaring at one sideways and showing an alarming expanse of white eyeball whilst doing
so, had plenty of both intelligence and muscle. He was called Damn and Drew was
not entirely surprised to learn that the stallion had been his fathers pride and ]oy when-
ever he deigned to spend a little of his rare and extremely precious free time at the
property.
They soon became comfortably familiar with each other, although Drew often got
the feeling that the horse was never going to become nIs in anything other than body.
Daemon was too willful and spirited to accept Drews mastery completely, and the big
horse often showed him, by little temper-tantrums, that he was only permitted to be its
rider as long as Daemon decreed it to be so. Nevertheless, Drew rapidly established a
sort of super-sense pact" with Daemon, and the pair soon developed a mutual respect
and trust. Drew found the great horse to be a marvelously powerful and sure-footed
mount, with a turn of speed that was totally exhilarating, and they covered many miles
together all around the huge spread of the property.
Occasionally, Drew would spot some particularly interesting-looking outcrop of rock
that warranted closer inspection, and would dismount to examine it. At such times, he had
no need to seek a stunted shrub or old tree trunk to which he could hitch the horse.
Daemon had already bonded to him sufficiently not to wander off. There were many
interesting spots around Glengarry Station that puzzled Drew in their curious geology, and
he could hardly wait for Errol to arrive so that he could show them to him. At one point
near its southern edge, he came across an odd-looking orange-brown up thrust butte that
protruded abruptly out of the red sandy earth, rather like a miniature Ayers Rock, and he
found that it was riddled with caves
Some showed signs of ancient occupation by aborigines who had left their unmis-
takable mouth-sprayed hand-marks and animal glyphs on their inner walls. But there
were others that went much deeper and darker into the rock, and, after exploring one of
these for a few dozen yards, he threw a stone into the darkness and from its distant
clatter, knew that it went on much further. Without decent lighting and some back-up
support, it would be sheer stupidity to follow it further into the blackness alone. He finally
had to make a strategic withdrawal and a mental note of its location. Hed return to the
site with Errol, and one of the station-hands, armed with sensible caving gear. Things like
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ropes, lights, proper boots, water and provisions, and perhaps a two-way intercom radio.
!t was definitely a place worthy of investigation.
But of course, so was the vast bulk of Aus!IaIIa itself - he reflected as he rode home.
Here he was, seizing upon the first likely-looking site, for a spot of geology and possible
archaeology, when the entire gigantic continent beckoned, with all its tremendously ar-
chaic wonders - mountains, gorges, canyons, caverns, buttes and bluffs, ideal for rock-
climbing - not to mention untold bottomless pools and subterranean, water-filled cavern-
systems! They could even examine those too! Both he and Errol had learned the arts of
rock-climbing, base-]umping, caving and cave-diving back in Britain, during their vaca-
tions around Scotland and its Western !sles. Together they had explored such mysterious
islands as Staffa, with its huge Fingals Cave, Eigg, Callanish, and even the famous Bass
Rock, northeast of Berwick. Australia had a wealth of such weird places, too. !t would
make a very welcome change to do some cave-diving again. Alas! The best places for
that were mostly down in South Australia. !t would be a fairly daunting drive from
Winton!
But hed almost forgotten that Errol would have a pIan. They could go wnIvI
!n) IIK in this great brown land, and the target-sites would be so much easier to pick
from the air! He found himself becoming quite euphoric at the prospect. !mpatience
began to nag at him. He could hardly wait to get started.
The intervening days gradually dwindled down, until suddenly, it was the eve of
Errols arrival. Bob sent some of the men to sweep overblown sand and tumbled dead
spinifex off the runway, and to clear out an old but roomy feed-storage shed, that might
serve admirably as a hangar for Errols aircraft. Joan suddenly remembered a dozen
things shed overlooked in preparing for his arrival. !n the meantime, Drew had received
a further email from Errol advising him of his imminent departure from Detroit to L. A.
from whence he would be flying Qantas to Brisbane. !t had been sent the previous
evening. Now it was twenty-two hours later. Hed be here !mIIw!
Strangely, despite all the excitement, everybody slept like logs, and it was Drew who
was the first to hear the phones persistent ringing, in the big lounge room. He struggled
to wake himself up, and stumbled, still half-asleep, down the passage to answer the
phone. Hullo?" he grunted dozily into the mouthpiece, Whos this?" Then a very
familiar voice echoed loudly in his ear. One with an unmistakable Detroit twang, that
roused him to full wakefulness with a start.
Hey! Hey! !s that you, Drew, old buddy? Dont you remember your old sparring-
partner? !ts ME, you dummy - ErroI1 Sorry to intrude so rudely on your beauty-sleep,
brother, but you I invite me over, remember?"
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Drew was almost speechless. Well, !ll be blowed!", he croaked back. "Hows it
going, mate! ! didnt expect to hear from you for bloody hours yet. Did you get an earlier
flight or something? What sort of a trip did you have? Where are you n."
Whoa, buddy!" laughed Errol at the other end of the line. One thing at a time,
Drew! A. We had a !aIIwIn, so we made up a couple of hours. B. !t was a greaI trip -
remind me to I! agaIn someday! And, C. !m calling from the office of an aIIpIan-nII
mpan) at Brisbane Airport. So if all goes like ! planned, !ll be heading your way within
the hour. How the hell does !na! grab you, Ma!? Gotta go now and register a crummy
flight-plan, grab a few maps, flash my AmEx card and were in goddamn business! What
Is can ! tell you?" He chuckled good-naturedly.
Drew was amazed again. !t ]ust struck me that ! never even Knw you could /I) a
plane, Erb! And you must be really sn! after that trip. ! know ! was when ! first came
home. Why dont you book into a motel and grab a couple of hours sleep?"
Oh, ! flew since ! was a kid, Drew! Ny old man, let me take the controls, once in
a while, then he finally got me regular lessons. Had a pilot license since ! first met you,
buddy. Never had a chance to fly in Scotland. Got plenty of practice in since though, so
!m back up to snuff! As for sIp, ! got pIn!) coming over. They had to waK m up after
we landed here! Anyhow, enough already, buddy, ! gotta FLY! Catch you in maybe two
hours, OK? Tell your Num ham and eggsll be ]ust fine with me. See ya soon, Drew!"
Then he rang off, leaving Drews already bemused thoughts in a total whirl.
Drews Num, having sleepily picked up the bedroom extension beside her bed, had
already heard most of the gist of their conversation, and she now emerged into the lounge
room. Better get our skates on, then, Drew!" she said as she put on the electric ]ug to
brew the early-morning cuppa. Go and get your shower, love, before Bob hogs the
bathroom."
Five a.m. is quite a normal rising-time for a station family, so by the time Drew came
out of the shower, Bob was patiently waiting his turn. !n the background the squeals and
laughter of the youngsters could be heard, and when Drew got back into the big living
room, there was a mouth-watering aroma of sizzling eggs, bacon and sausages permeat-
ing the cool morning air. He poured himself a scalding hot cup of tea, while Joan served
up the first sitting of breakfast to Drew and Charlie. There you go, boys." grinned Joan,
with a conspiratorial wink. FIIs! up, Ds! Iss1
As usual, young Charlie burned his hand on the hot plate, but it didnt stop him
wolfing down his food as if it was the first hed had for months. But Drew took his time.
The huge breakfast, complete with fried bread, and hot buttered toast, was far too tasty
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and delicious to be gulped down in such an uncivilized fashion. Such a gourmet delight
had to be lovingly savored to the last morsel. Bob was a lucky bloke having such a
wonderful cook for his wife.
Neanwhile Bob and the two girls had taken their places at the big table, and, as
Joan busied herself frying up another great batch of eggs, bacon and sausages for them,
Bob sat sipping his own one-pint mug of scalding black tea. He noticed the milky light
brown colour of Drews tea, and, as was his habit at mealtimes, delivered one of his old
bushland homilies.
Black!" He told Drew. That was the way tea was supposed to be drunk. !n good old
Aussie fashion, and preferably stirred with a gum-twig to give it a touch of eucalyptus
flavor. Then he went on to talk about the Australian bushmen, swagmen and drovers of
old, and how theyd made !nII tea. By boiling a billycan of creek water over a twig-fire,
and throwing in a handful of tea-leaves and another of sugar as soon as it hit the boil, then
stirring it with a fresh gum-twig, while it still boiled. Gotta drink it scaldinhot, too, son,
otherwise its bloody stewed!" he added.
He would have gone on to explain how to make ampI, the old bush-bread that
swagmen and drovers used to bake in the campfire-ashes and eat with their tea, but he
was cut short in mid-sentence by Joan slapping his gigantic breakfast down in front of
him, and telling him to pipe down. Come on now, Bob!" She said. Thats enough of all
that! Shut up yabbering, and get !na! down you while its hot!"
Strangely, she got no argument from Bob, and all that could be heard for the next
quarter-hour was the busy clatter of knives and forks and the munching and crunching of
breakfast and toast as the rest of the family en]oyed their morning repast.
Drew, who had finished his meal, excused himself and went outside to get some air
whilst it was still cool. Out here on the edge of the desert, the nights were almost freezing
cold even in the summer time. Early morning, ]ust around sunup, was really the best part
of the day for inhabitants of the outback.
Some of the stockmen were already saddling up their mounts and awaiting their
orders for the day from the head stockman, prior to riding out. Theyd had their break-
fasts even earlier than the homestead family. On Glegarry Station, they took it in turns to
cook, but some of them, whose culinary skills were pathetic if not downright dreadful,
usually escaped inclusion in the roster. Drew had already met most of them, and had
watched them performing their often painfully difficult chores.
These included branding, castrating, tip-pruning dangerous horns and dipping against
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cattle-ticks. But the heaviest work was mustering and camp-drafting. Some of the hands
were expert horsemen who took part in local rodeos, and the ribbons on the bunkhouse
walls bore proud testimony to their prowess.
!n an earlier day and age, Bob would have been out there saddling up to ride out
with his men, but he had his hands full these days with paperwork and organizational
tasks. The typical penalty of progress. His second eldest son, Charlie was already a
trainee ]ackaroo" in his spare time, in between his satellite audio-video classes on the
DIs!an! ua!In 5nI / Tn AII. This was also shared by the two girls, and the
satellite dish also picked up the familys Tv and phone signals.
Fortunately, Alasdair had generously arranged the finance for all this to be provided
via the Clanranald Corporation, for as long as it was required. A special room in the big
homestead had been set aside as a classroom especially for that purpose, and all the
necessary power was supplied by one of the propertys two large diesel generators along
with the homesteads other electrical power needs. Bob and Joan had much to be
grateful to Alasdair for, as they could never have afforded such a system. Alasdair also
paid for Jim to attend boarding-school too. And, although they had no inkling of it yet,
they would very soon have cause to be even more grateful.
After much soul-searching, Bob and Joan had decided against sending Charlie off to
boarding-school, as he wasnt as bright as his brother Jim had been However, whatever
Charlie lacked in intellect he more than made up for in good old fashioned nous" and
common sense. Bob had no doubt that in the fullness of time, Charlie would be perfectly
able to take over the running of the property on his own.
Drew had been so engrossed in daydreaming about all these matters, that he had
almost forgotten about Errols imminent arrival. As he glanced at his watch, he saw that
the time was now nearly 7am, and a feeling of ]oyful anticipation of soon seeing his old
sparring partner again surged through him. He heard the screen-door creak open
behind him as Bob came out onto the wide verandah that encircled the entire homestead.
He wore his wide-brimmed hat and carried Drews in his hand.
Better shove this on, son!" he said. We dont want your mate arriving and you
standin about the airstrip without it, do we? Lost enough good mates through bloody
skin-cancer already, without )u developin it."
They stood on the verandah a few moments longer, watching the two station handy-
men, hobbling across the dusty yard. Stan Lawson was the younger of the two. He was
a lanky Chips-Rafferty"-like man with a very sober attitude, a long, thin face and an even
longer nose. Hed been crippled for life when a galloping steers horn had been forcible
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rammed through the back of his right knee, as hed ridden his horse into a stampede in an
effort to turn the leaders.
That had been some years back. Stan had very nearly lost the leg. But thanks to
the prompt response and brilliant on-the-spot surgery of the Flying Doctor from Lon-
greach, he had managed to hang onto it. But it had taken a very long spell in the Nackay
Base Hospital, and several operations to get him back on his feet again. However, at least
he hadnt lost his ]ob, thanks to Bobs fairness and goodwill. Hed been hurt in doing his
]ob for the station, so the station was responsible for his future. Though his locked knee-
]oint now prevented him riding a horse, at least there were still plenty of other ]obs he
could do around the place, which he did with a will.
The other handyman was his offsider, Jimmy ORourke, who, despite his !rish name
and Lutheran upbringing was as black as ebony. Jimmy was a typical Nission-raised
aborigine who had been taken away from his drunken and violent mother at an early age
for his own welfare. The Aboriginal !nland Nission, established by John Flynn, had raised
him and given him a new name, as well as a decent education. Now, although still wiry
and tough, at the rip old age of fifty-nine, Jimmy was an I /III by Aboriginal stan-
dards. !n Bobs view, he had earned his corn many times over, and deserved a secure
retirement on the property.
Not that Jimmy was ever likely to retire. He still en]oyed doing odd ]obs around the
place, and he and Stan were virtually as inseparable as Siamese twins. Not that they were
aIwa)s the best of mates. Jimmy had a great sense of fun and mischief, and loved to play
tricks on Stan. Stan was quite the reverse, in that he didnt suffer fools gladly - or fooling
about, either. !n his view, Jimmy was nothing but an overgrown piccaninnie, and he
treated him like one.
Stans occasional outbursts of mock rage at Jimmy would have made any Champion
of Racial Equality cringe in horror. He was often seen limped furiously (an paIn/uII)} after
Jimmy wielding a thick bullwhip (with which he was a widely acclaimed expert in the
Rodeo circuit) yelling Come here, yer rotten little black bastard, while ! bloody larrup yer
black arse!" !nstead of being cowed or upset by this, Jimmy would insult him back by
calling Stan names such as a On-Ig BIIga-FIII wI!n Lng BaK. Stan hated this
reference to his oversize olfactory organ, and didnt regard himself as one-legged red-
nosed grey stork, either. But it was all pure front and showmanship. Stan was too deft in
the handling of his whip to even touch Jimmy when he cracked it, let alone hurt him, and
Jimmy knew this all too well.
As they passed Bob and Drew, they both nodded. Stan said Gday, Boss! Howya
goin?" Bob acknowledged their greeting with a tip of his finger to the brim of his Akubra.
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Then, to Drew, Stan added: Gday t yer, Drew! Hear yer got a Yank mate arrivin any tick
othe clock, eh?" Drew smiled back at the pair and nodded his beaming affirmation.
Yair," Bob said sidelong to Drew, an ! reckon its time we were headin out to the
airstrip ]ust about now, too!" No sooner had he said it, than Drew heard the very faint
sound of a aircraft engine approaching in the distance. Ny Word, Bob!" he laughed.
Youve got ears on you like a bloomin bandicoot!" As they set off at a ]og-trot towards
the airstrip, the sound of the planes engine rapidly grew to a roar, and a six-seater Cessna
206 zoomed low over their heads, its pilot waving vigorously through the left-hand cockpit
window. Then he pulled back the stick and the plane executed a perfect up-and-over
loop, barely missing their hats with its spatted wheels as it leveled out again. Finally,
however, after doing a circuit of the homestead during which he checked out the way the
tattered old windsock was blowing, and the state of the hard-clay runway, the pilot brought
the Cessna round again, now facing into the light wind, and gently floated it down to make
a perfect three-point landing.
Bloody Hell!" yelled Bob in Drews ear This mate of yours seems a decent sort o
pilot - but he must be as mad as a bloody meat-axe!" Drew ]ust laughed. !t had to be
Errol to pull such a risky stunt like that low loop. He was a born daredevil.
Because the wind was blowing toward the homestead, the Cessna had to land and
taxi away from them, then, using the rudder and propeller draught alone, its pilot turned
the plane around at the far end, and taxied back to where they waited. As it came to a
stop, the side cockpit-window slid back to reveal Errols madly-grinning features.
Hey, Drew!" he yelled, waving a casual hand. How ya doing, old buddy!" Then he
prodded a finger toward the now cleared feed-shed. Say, is that gonna be my hangar?"
he asked. !f so, !ll run her straight over there and see what clearance !ve got! OK?" He
gave them the thumbs-up signal and gunned the engine slightly, ]ust enough to pull the
plane up to the wide sheds doorway. There was at least six or seven feet to spare beyond
either wingtip. So Errol gunned the engine again a lot harder, and with the rudder right
over to port, he span the plane around by a full 180 degrees to face in the opposite
direction. !ts tail was now toward the hangar" doorway. Then he cut the motor, and,
after fiddling with the controls for a moment, he unbuckled himself, squeezed out be-
tween the seats and opened the side-door. As he sprang down, Drew raced forward to
welcome him.
How the hell aI you, Erb!" he cried happily. Long time no see, mate! B) G -
youre look blooming /I!, old son! Come on over and meet my new Dad." The pair walked
back to where Bob was waiting with a grin of welcome across his face. Drew performed
the formalities. Errol, this is Bob, my second Da - Bob, this is Errol, who youve heard
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so much about." Bob leaned forward and grasped Errols hand in a grip of steel. Pleased
to meetcha, young feller," he said still crushing Errols fingers. Heard a lot about you.
Welcome to Glengarry Station!"
The young American strove to retrieve his hand trying not to show the pain he was
suffering. Likewise, Bob," he almost groaned, and thanks for having me over!" At last
Bob let go of his hand. Where on earth did you learn to fly like !na!, son?" he asked,
waving his hand around in imitation of an up-and-over loop.
Errol grinned, concealing the agony as the circulation returned to his mangled
hand. Aw! That was one of the first things my old man taught me when ! was around
sixteen!" He chuckled. He was supposed to be trying to pu! m // /I)Ing for life - but !
guess he sure got !na! wrong! When we talked it over later, he finally came clean and told
me that Nom had put him up to it. She hates me flying!"
Cant say as ! blame her, meself, either." replied Bob. Thought you were gonna
take our bloody na!s with you!" Errol reddened slightly. Sorry about that, Bob." he
apologized. Guess ! I cut it a tad fine."
No worries, cobber!" laughed Bob. Just havin a go at yer! Lets get on up to the
house." But Errol looked uncertainly back at the plane. Er, can you help me push her
inside, first? Just in case we get a storm or - or something?"
Bob was ]ust about to tell him there wasnt much danger of any storm, but at that
point Stan and Jimmy arrived on the scene, so between them all they gently maneuvered
the plane backwards safely inside the iron shed. !t fitted inside snugly, with plenty of
room to spare, back and front as well. there you go, mate." said Bob as they emerged
from the shed-hangar, Snug as flamin bug in a rug! All we need now is a bloody good
fortnight of decent soakin rain, eh!" Then, turning to the two yard-hands, he told them
to haul out the visitors luggage and bring it up to the house.
Errol was still eyeing Bob in some mild alarm.
Why? !s there some bad weather on the way?" he asked, rather anxiously, gazing
up under his raised hand at the clear blue vault of the spring sky. Bob grinned up at him.
None that 1v heard about, Errol, but we certainly need it pretty badly. !ts as dry as
snakes bloody armpit out there, mate, annot much help to the stock!"
Leaving the two station hands to close the doors, the three then headed back to the
homestead. On the way, Errol paused in mid-stride. Theres ]ust one thing that s!III bugs
me, Bob." he said, peering carefully all around at the outbuildings.
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Oh? Whats !na!, then ?" asked Bob, looking a little puzzled.
Well," said Errol, ! dont see any IaIIIa ngIns around." Bob still looked puzzled.
What the hell would you wanna see bloody IaIIwa) !IaIns for, mate?" But Drew grinned
broadly. He knew the punch line to this one off by heart.
Well," said Errol looking around again. This 1s supposed to be a sIaI1on, isnt it?"
Drew burst into laughter, and slapped Bob on the back. He had m going with that gag
back in Uni, years ago, Bob!"
Bob ]ust grinned up evilly under his the brim of his sweat-stained old hat. Oh, !
s! Hes bit of a bloody wag, is he? Well have to try an uI him of that, wont we, eh,
Drew?"
Now it was Errols turn to look puzzled, and a touch unsure of himself. Hed experi-
enced the Australian grim sense of twisted humor before, from Drew!
Up at the homestead, Joan was waiting for them at the top of the verandah steps,
surrounded by her rowdy bunch of offspring, who were dying to meet a real live American
for the first time outside a Tv screen. Once again Drew made the introductions and Errol
was the epitome of politeness. !ts a real pleasure to meet you, at last, Nrs. Jackson! !
guess Drew probably told you all about me in his letters, maam, so ! hope youre not too
disappointed! Real nice ranch you got here, by the way! Hope Drewll take me around
the."
But here, Bob interrupted Errols little speech. Rancn" did you say, son? Rancn?
We dont have any bloody Ianns over here, mate! This is Australia, my lad! We only
have..."
5TATTOA5!" grinned Errol, red-faced again. OK, Bob! You wIn, buddy, ! guess
!ve got some language-study" to catch up on, havent !! Dont worry, !ll soon get the
hang of it! Specially with you as my tutor!"
However, it was now Joans turn to butt in. The only language youll ever learn from
him is BAO!" she laughed. Dont you take any notice of him, Errol. Come on inside and
!ll make you that breakfast you ordered over the phone!"
By then Stan and Jimmy had arrived with the gear from the plane, and while Joan
got his breakfast ready, Drew took Errol to see his room, where the handymen had dumped
his cases and bags.
Here you go, old son." he said as Errol tested the bedsprings and gazed admiringly
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around the freshly-painted, high-ceilinged airy bedroom, This is your room for as long as
you want to stay, mate! ! dont suppose its as flash as your place in Nichigan, but youll
have to get used to roughing it a bit. Youre out in the back blocks of Oz now, old son, so
youll ]ust have to cop it bloomin sweet!"
Then Drew lowered his voice a little. by the way, Erb, dont take too much notice of
old Bob! Hes a really great bloke once you get to know him - and hes a great KII, too,
so be warned! Dont try an take the Nickey too much, or hell chew you up and spit you
out! Hes an expert at chopping big fellers down to size!"
Yeah!" said Errol with a rather wry grin. ! already found !na! out! ! was beginning
to think !d rubbed him up some way! Anyhow, buddy," he went on, ! IoVe this place!
They used to build houses like this back in the old days back Home, and theyre all worth
mIIIIns now! ! guess ! already feel like ! came Hm, Drew!"
Good on you, son!" Joans voice echoed from the doorway behind them, taking
them both by surprise. Shed ]ust caught Errols last comment. Bob and ! really do want
you to consider this your nm while youre with us! Oh, and sorry to interrupt your cozy
little chat, and all that, Errol, but youd better come and get this FuI-5!aI BIaK/as! you
were on about, before ! have to feed it all to the dogs!"
Errol, who was totally famished, required no second bidding, and made a beeline
straight for the huge living room. And soon the peaceful mid-morning quiet of the old
homestead was broken by the clatter and rattling of a knife and fork being applied to the
heaped and highly savory contents of a large dinner plate with all the workmanlike vigor
and lip-smacking appreciation of a dedicated gourmet.
After Errol had finished his enormous breakfast, Drew suddenly recalled Errols men-
tion in his first email from Detroit, concerning some pI!!) In!Is!Ing pIpsI!In hed
wanted to put to him. Theyd decided to take one of the station utilities into Longreach so
that Errol could check with a bank there regarding his transfer of funds from Detroit. And,
at the same time, for him to cash some travelers cheques and buy a few personal items.
Drew had suggested that, while they were at it, Errol could take a look around a typical
Queensland outback town. But more importantly the long drive down would be an excel-
lent opportunity for them to discuss privately whatever it was that Errol had on his mind.
Gee, Whizz!" exclaimed Errol, when Drew mentioned this. !d almost forgotten the
most important reason for my trip over here, in all the excitement!" Then, noticing the
slightly crestfallen look on Drews face, he quickly added. That is, sn nI) to the
terrific pleasure of meeting up with my dear old buddy again, of course! When were you
aiming to leave, Drew?"
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What about nw?" asked Drew, feeling a whole lot happier. Theres no time like
the present, old mate!"
The trip to Longreach in the station utility truck was quite long, hot, and a bouncy
one at first, as the outback dirt-roads were often full of washouts and potholes. But fortu-
nately, the road between Winton and Longreach was considerably smoother. The two
chums were able to converse better than in the ]erky, gasping shouts that the rougher
tracks had forced out of them at the beginning of the 200 mile trip.
Once they were on there way, and Errol had gotten over the enormity of the desert
landscape that they were passing through, he started to tell Drew about the idea that had
initially brought him all the way from Nichigan.
Apparently, hed continued to maintain contact with a few discussion groups on the
!nternet after his return to the States, and one of the members had raised the issue of
land-based portals in various parts of the world. American cave-systems had already
been considered and studied at length. Especially after the revival of an old book from the
1800s called !IInpa. This book told of a rather fantastic trip made by a man who was
kidnapped by a Freemason group for a betrayal of their cause, and was sent upon a
subterranean ]ourney beneath the Kentucky hills, with an eyeless, alien-looking humanoid
as his guide and mentor. After many adventures and much turmoil, the man had finally
been led out into the !nner Earth - a vast spherical space, in which he at last found some
kind of Nirvana.
However, the great Nammoth Cave system, which seemed to be identified in all but
name in the book, proved to have been fairly thoroughly explored. And according to all
accounts, it seemed to be definitely limited in its actual extent. Other US cave-systems
had also been considered, with similar reports from experienced speleologists, as also had
the better-know ones in Central and South America. Brazil was a hot favorite for a while,
because of its deep hidden cave-systems that were reported by Colonel Percy Fawcetts
expedition in the early 1900s, but, in the absence of Fawcetts later notes, they could not
be rediscovered.
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Some water-filled systems occurred in Yucatan, Nexico. These were known as n-
!s, and could only be explored by trained cave-diving teams. But none of them actually
went on indefinitely. The longest one was I JaIn! Pa! which was enormously extensive
underwater subterranean tunnel system somewhat over 183,000 feet in total extent. !t
was ]ust like the random borings left by some gigantic worm, often winding back and forth
over and under itself. Although this amounted to over 17 miles in total, it was all largely
nIIzn!aI rather than vertical, so because of this lack of p!n, it was dismissed as being
of any real interest to hollow-earth searchers.
The quest continued in other areas of the world, with the Himalayas region as being
a prime-target due to the innumerable reports, myths and legends of great underground
cities existing there. Cities such as Shamballah and Agartha. Africa was also examined
closely, but the only really deep pits and tunnels there of any note were largely man-made
diamond and gold mines!
At length, after an extensive scrutiny of Asia in general, it was found that most of the
best candidate tunnels or possible portals" were concentrated around the South-East
Asian region. Nany likely sites are recorded in local myth and legend but these still await
proper exploration by trained speleologists. However, although this was frustrating, it led
the search to Australia and New Zealand, both of which possesses promising-looking sites.
The region around South Australia seemed to offer several good prospects, including a
number of very deep circular sink-holes filled with water. Nost of these were located in
South Australia, and some of them reached depths estimated at 80 or 90 meters before a
mushy bottom was found - although this was composed of so much soft biological detritus
that it is still hard to be sure that even this depth is accurate. The volume of many
millennia of deposition of this muck might hide the fact that the actual floors of the ponds
go considerably deeper!
But Errol was much more in favor of locating a dry descent than a wet one, as the
latter would have eventually led to huge problems with air-supply and the added burden
of cumbersome extra air-tanks and other gear - not to mention eventual water-pressure
difficulties associated with deep diving. After all, if they tried to descend !nIugn wa!I
to the gravity limit, some /uI nunI mIIs down, what would the water-pressure be
like? He couldnt even imagine it at n mile deep, let alone at /uI nunI! One would
need a super-strong bathysphere - like those used by Piccard and Beebe, only vastly
stronger - to attempt such an enormous plunge!
The Gravity Limit" Errol mentioned, referred to the actual focus of the hollow
planets gravity, which he believed was noI a point in the center of the hollow Earth.
Rather, it would be a spner1caI 11eId, like a vast DuDDI of electromagnetic force, close to
8,000 miles across, that would be located around halfway through the 800-mile thickness
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of the Earths crust.
According to one physicist hed spoken to about such a hypothetical gIavI!)-spnI,
the gravitation-pull (I pusn} might actually begin to Iu from the rocky outer sur-
face down, and could possibly become Zero G at the actual level of the ENF gravity-
shell. This expert had some high-faluting concept that the force rapidly became pI!
after it began penetrating solid rock. !t was thus likely to dwindle away to nothing by the
time it had reached its focus. After that, however, it would steadily increase again as it
went back UP through to the 1nner suI/a of the spherical rock shell. Then it would
again lessen to zero at the spheres center.
There was only one way to !s! this concept, and that was under the actual condi-
tions in question! Tests couldnt be made in a laboratory setting because of the already
prevalent gravitation present all around the test-area. Even a vacuum test would be
useless, since gravitational force ignores vacuums! Errol said that the physicist was a
brilliant guy from N!T who had delved exhaustively into all the physics and mathematics
of the thing, and claimed that it worked fine - !nI!IaII) - on paper! But if it was !Iu,
then all their problems were solved! A bathysphere should work fine! All they had to do
was pick the IIgn! sink-hole!
But Drew was not convinced - either about the gravity decreasing, or about the
need to attempt any sink-hole descent. His own view was that a large chunk of Australia
was one of - if not Ine oldest rock foundations of the entire world. Practically all of
Central and Western Australia was an original remnant slab of the fabled continent of
Gondwana. Therefore, if there truly was a !IuI) IIgInaI portal" or tunnel that led right
through the crust, !na! would nav ! be the most likely place to find it! Errol was silent
for some time while he digested this idea, then finally he threw up his hands and sug-
gested that they should nI! !n a!Iass an snIDKs and search for a likely cavern-
system that might offer some promise of real depth. One that hadnt yet been fully ex-
plored would obviously be the likeliest choice for a starting-point. Fortunately, hed
brought a great bundle of colour-photocopied maps and charts of Australia over with him.
They were both physical and geological, including a fair number of satellite and aerial
pictures of certain areas he favored.
! guess ! thought !d better have a back-up PIan B- ]ust in case you didnt buy
into the Cn!-5InK HI brainwave, old buddy!" he grinned resignedly. But ! agree
with you one-hundred percent, Drew, that Australia nas to be the best bet - wn1cneVer
way we try it! The main thing is - would )u be interested in actually looking around for
a portal wI!n me, huh? Am ! right in assuming that you are ?"
Out of the corner of his eye, as he drove along the dusty dirt road, Drew could see
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the anxiety in his friends face as he put the question, and had to fight down the urge to
string him along a bit. He pretended to ponder the idea very deeply, and remained silent
for a few moments, his brows knitted in apparently serious thought as the bouncing ute
]olted them around in their seats. However, he was rather surprised at the ease with
which Errol had apparently abandoned his sinkhole theory and that he already had a Plan
B" figured out. Naybe this was the one he really wanted to push?
Oh, come on, buddy, for Petes Sake!" cried Errol after a couple of minutes of this
silence. "!ts not like !m asking you to sign the goddamn Declaration of !ndependence or
anything! Just a straight Yes" or No" will do!"
Drew decided that hed pulled Errols leg long enough. Oh, well, - ! guess thered
probably be no harm in coming along and taking a bit of a look around, mate." He said.
Specially since youve come all this blooming way to ask me! !d be a real ratbag if ! said
No", wouldnt !!" Then he glanced, grinning from ear to ear across at Errol. What the
hell did you !nInK !d say, you half-witted nong? !ts the best offer !ve had since ! got
home!"
Errol grinned back ferociously, and punched Drew hard in the left bicep. "You
bastard!" he grumbled. You were ]ust KIIng me along, werent you! Go on! Admit it,
you lousy rat!" But his face belied his mock-anger, as it was wreathed in a great smile of
relief. Hed wondered hard and long before he left Detroit whether he should spell out his
proposition in his first email message, but had decided not to, in case Drew had lost
interest in the Hollow Earth . !nstead, hed decided to gamble on being able to talk Drew
around directly, to come in with him on the quest.
Funny that you brought that up, mate." Said Drew. !d begun to have a few thoughts
along the same lines myself! As a matter of fact, that was the last thing ! was trying to get
through to my old man, when he collapsed!" Then, noticing Errols querulous stare, he
added, No, no, Erb! !t wasnt m that gave him the attack! Hed been working himself to
death for years. Crazy old coot. The quack told me his ticker had been hanging by a
thread for ages and marveled that hed lasted this long! No, Dad was simply a workaholic!
Poor old sod!" Drew fell into a rather pensive brown study for a while after that, his mind
flashing back to that fateful afternoon.
! suppose he wanted you to follow in his footsteps, like my old man, eh?" Errol
asked. Ny Pop wants me to ]oin him in the automobile business, when !ve had my
sabbatical, but ! havent given him a definite Yea" or Nay". Though ! reckon ! probably
mIgn!, once !ve cracked !nIs little problem!" He sat wrapped in thought for a few min-
utes. Then he added: At least, ! dont need to worry about it now. Pop told me theres
no rush and he says ! neednt worry about asn, either! Thats one thing hes got in
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superabundance! ! guess )u wont exactly be stuck for a buck, either, eh, buddy! You
should be in for a tidy inheritance ! guess!"
Drew gave Errol a wan smile. No, ! suppose not." He mused. According to our
lawyers, Dads left me the whole box and dice. but !d rather have dear old Dad still
around anytime! He was a real decent bloke, Errol, even if he was a bit rough around the
edges, and came down hard on me a fair bit!" He sighed deeply. Ah, well! Never mind,
mate, !ll try and live up to his expectations n wa) or another! But it wont be in the
damned DusInss wII, !m afraid, thats for blooming sure! !ll leave all !na! side of
things to the experts!"
Errol was very glad to hear this. So you wIII be free to team up with me then? !
wasnt sure what your future plans were going to be. Naybe you should have a sabbati-
cal", too, old pal! After all, we can both afford it, and were both footloose and fancy-free!
What say, feller? Are you in, or are you in?"
!m IN! ! nav been since ! first bloody neard of the !nner Earth!" laughed Drew,
as they approached Winton and turned left onto the Natilda Highway. So shut up now,
mate, and let me introduce you to my old cobber, Ban]o Paterson!" He steered the ute
over toward the area in the center of the busy main street where the famous old outback
poets statue stood, and where his greatest work was now further immortalized across the
road in the Waltzing Natilda Center. After a couple of refreshing cold beers and a hot
roast-beef sandwich at the bar of Tattersalls Hotel - plus a topping-up of gas for the ute,
they continued upon their cheery way.
The rest of the trip to Longreach was one long recital of Patersons poems and songs
by Drew, much to Errols delight. Hed already fallen under the spell of the old Ocker"
traditions (an !nII wII a!n-pnIass} during their Uni days in Edinburgh, and loved to
hear these rollicking old bush poems and songs. Errols especial favorite was Tn DIvIs
DIam, a very funny song about Australian animals that hed laboriously learned off by
heart from Drew, and could now sing in a near-perfect, slow Queensland-outback drawl.
He ]oined Drew in singing this one, as well as WaI!zIng Ma!IIa, another great favorite of
his. Errol was amazed to notice snp grazing the paddocks on either side of the
highway, and, whilst they were what Waltzing Natilda" was all about, hed somehow got
the idea that this was all a!!I country and that sheep were only raised down in the cooler
southern states.
As they hurtled along the smooth highway at full speed, he was struck by the sheer
distances of the outback. !n the far distance, its low ranges, outcrops and mesas on the
skyline reminded him of the lonely highways of the western American states, like Texas,
Arizona and Nevada, but the scenery here was even more dry and sunburnt. Even the
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breeze of their movement through the hot desert air was like the draught from a fan-
forced oven. He wished Drew would wind the windows up and turn on the air-condition-
ing, the controls of which he could see tantalizingly close on the dash, but he didnt dare
to ask. The last thing he wanted was for Drew to chip him for being a waK I!)-DI
wImp. No doubt things would get a lot tougher and hotter before they were through! Not
a pleasing prospect! Fortunately for Errol, he didnt know ]ust nw prophetic his thoughts
would eventually prove to be!
Now and again, a gigantically long, cattle-crammed road-train would roar past them,
its array of chromed klaxon-horns blaring forth atop the cab, sucking them along errati-
cally in its slipstream of choking red dust. But strangely, they never passed a single police
patrol-car. HI) G1 These Aussies could get away with murder compared to the States,
he thought, pIus driving on the wrong sI of the highway, into the bargain! He really
would have to try this IIgn!-nan driving for himself! Drew had never let Errol drive his old
second-hand-bomby car in Scotland - but maybe he might let him have a crack at the ute
on the way back to Glengarry?
Sometimes, sadly, they had to swerve to avoid hitting bloated, road-killed kangaroo
corpses, and once a huge black crow that had been picking over the remains of a squashed
snake flew up ]ust a split-second too late. !t left its innards in a nasty smear across one
side of the windscreen, before becoming a flapping bundle of bloody feathers on the
almost-molten asphalt behind them. Errol began to realize that the Australian outback
was an extremely hard and unforgiving country, with little sympathy or room for even the
smallest error or miscalculation. !t was hardly the sort of place for human families, to live,
white or black, let alone the poor half-starved and parched livestock that was their princi-
pal means of making a living! God alone knew how the aborigines had managed to cope
in such a forbidding land - or the native animals, come to that. Yet they I, and amaz-
ingly well, too!
He recalled seeing the film LawIn / AIaDIa and how hed marveled that the
Arabs could actually live in such a sweltering furnace of a land. But here he was in a land
of wnI! mn of Northern Anglo-Celtic background like himself, who stood up to, and
IaDI in virtually the same sort of conditions as had the indolent Arabs, and they actually
seemed to Iv and n)) the harsh life here! He suddenly found himself pining for
Nichigan in the fall, with a cool evening breeze blowing in off the lake, and a blazing log
fire spitting and crackling in the big living-room fireplace.
Drew glanced across at him. Howre you doing, Erb? You seem to be pretty quiet,
mate! How dyou like the heat so far? Never, mind - itll soon be summI! Dreaming of
Home, were you? Suppose itll nearly be au!umn over there now, eh?"
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Errol was speechless. He made a mock despairing gesture of wiping the sweat of his
brow, and grinned back. He knew that Drew was really only ]oshing him - or HavIn a
g1 as the Aussie expression went. But he was once again amazed at the strange mental
rapport they shared. !t had been like this since theyd first met at the University, when a
porter had shown him up to the room he was to share with this stranger from Down Under.
Hed never run across an Australian before in his life, and once they got talking, hed found
Drews accent and turn of phrase quite weird compared to those of the many Brits hed
met.
Till then, hed always labored under the assumption that Australians were really
only Brits who lived in another country, over on the other side of the world. They had the
same sort of government as Britain, they also drove on the wrong side of the road, and
they even had the same flag to some extent - except for the white stars!
And yet theyd turned out to be so !!aII) I//In!! !n many respects they were
quite similar to Americans in their taste and their demeanor. Even their history was closely
kindred to that of the early settlers in America - except he gathered that many of their
forebears had been shipped out here to s!aI! the settlement - as a form of punIsnmn!!
He could sympathize with them! The rest had been migrants and free settlers like theyd
had in the States. Why they even had 5!a!s, too, in Australia, unlike the British Cun!Is!
And come to think of it, they also had their own S!aI-5pangI BannI with its white-
starred Southern Cross, too! !t sure was an interesting place - if only it wasnt so god-
damn stinking noI!
He was ]ust about to humiliate himself and request Drew to pIas turn on the air-
conditioning, when Drew pointed up the highway ahead. Here we go, Erb!" he said,
Were ]ust coming into Longreach, now!" Errol looked quickly through the dusty and bug-
spattered windscreen and saw that the road ahead had suddenly begun to widen and
there were IaI gIn trees casting their black shadows across it, with white-painted
buildings gleaming behind them, some with red-painted iron roofs, others with alumi-
num-silver ones. Cars and station utes were angle-parked on either side beneath the
shade of the trees and the facaded buildings, and the awning-covered sidewalks were
surprisingly busy with people.
Nost of the men wore typically western-style Akubra hats, very like the old cowboy
Stetsons, as well as cowboy-style boots! This was quite a culture-shock for Errol, even
though wide-brimmed hats were common on Glengarry Station. The whole setting seemed
so typically like the old US Western towns - even down to the Coca-Cola signs and over-
head electric power lines on poles! Only the beer-advertising signs were out of place.
The bright red and yellow XXXX", and the Fosters Lager" beer signs were distinctly
Aussie!
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Fortunately, the first empty parking-place they found was almost right outside the
branch of the very bank to which his ample fund of money had been forwarded by his
bank in Detroit - and even more fortunately, it was still open! Ah, well! One had to get
lucky sometimes! By now it was already afternoon, so Errol headed into the bank whilst
Drew went of to do a bit of quick shopping for Joan and the kids. He bought a large slab"
of Fourex" beer in cans to help boost up Bobs bar-fridge supply, as well as umpteen cans
of soda-pop for the kids.
Drew also bought a nice box of chocolates for Joan, as well as some candy-bars for
the kids. They would normally have melted by the time they got back, but he wrapped
the slab of beer-cans and the cans of soft-drink very carefully in a couple of clean Hessian
sacks and the utes tarpaulin, with the box of chocolates and the bars in between them, so
that the chocolate would at least still be solid after the two-hour drive home to Glengarry.
By the time Drew had finished parceling all these goodies up and wedging the
bundle firmly between a couple of empty boxes so it wouldnt bounce too much, Errol had
emerged from the bank. As he triumphantly stowing a healthily-thickened wallet into his
pocket, he treated Drew to a big grin. He was a happy man now. Everything had gone like
clockwork, and his ample funds had been safely transferred.
All fixed up OK, eh?" asked Drew unnecessarily. Got your brass all sorted, did
you?"
Surely did!" smiled Errol. We can go get whatever we need now for the expedition
- anytime youre ready - `ma!!"
Drew smiled back, a tad ironically.. But we dont even naVe a blooming pIan yet,
Erb! Gettin a bit in front of ourselves, arent we?"
Errols eyes twinkled back at him. ! dont believe thats gonna slow us down much
is it? We can start in looking over the maps tonight if you like! ! mean, if were really
gonna do this thing, wed better start in pronto, hey? What say, old buddy? "
You wont get any argument from me about !na!, mate!" replied Drew.
As they had finished up their business in Longreach, and they still had a two-hour
drive home, hopefully before sundown, they decided to take a rain-check on seeing the
rest of the town, for !na! day, anyhow. !nstead, they treated themselves to a quick
hamburger and Coke apiece then made for the ute.
The road back seemed a lot clearer of traffic, especially since most of the few re-
maining road-trains for the day were heading in the opposite direction. So Errol asked
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Drew if he could take over the wheel for a while. Dont worry, buddy!" he said. ! think !
can stick to the wrong" side of the road OK! !ts ]ust that !m gonna have to get used to
driving your way, or !ll be like a goddamn fifth wheel later on!"
Drew could see the sense of this. There wasnt much point in only one of them
being able to drive if they were going to do some IaI travelling in the near future! Theyd
need to be able to take it turn about. So, without any further ado, he pulled the ute over
to the side of the road, and swapped places with Errol.
OK, cobber!" he said. Lets see how you get on! But for the love of Nike, Errol, s!IK
! !n Ie1I sI / !n Ia! Dont even Iry to overtake anybody, either! You might forget
yourself and s!a) in the IIgn! lane! !n which case we can both kiss our backsides good-
bye! Just keep telling yourself that all these mad Aussie drivers ]ust escaped from a
loony-bin, and you might ]ust be all right!" Then, ]ust as Errol was about to take off, he
added, Hey! ! hope youve got your drivers license with you? !t may be a Yank one, but
it might get us off the hook if you get pulled over." He was about to add I I/ w g! In!
a DIngI1 but he thought better of it.
As he pulled out onto the highway, Errol couldnt help but notice how Drew braced
himself with one hand grasping the dash in a deathlike grip and the other arm locked
behind his seat. He smiled to himself at Drews obvious distrust of his abilities. He looked
forward with glee to giving the poor guy his first /I)Ing-Issn!
Nuch to Drews surprise and relief, Errol handled the Ford ute like a veteran. He
anticipated the upcoming right turn off the highway at Winton before Drew got the chance
to warn him of its approach. We hang a right turn ]ust up here dont we, Drew?" he
asked, veering into the outside lane. Obviously his phenomenal memory hadnt wilted
since their University days! Drew was finally satisfied that Errol would be safe on Austra-
lian roads, and Errol was much gratified to see Drew at last let go off the dashboard and
lean back in his seat.
Fancy a nice cold beer, mate?" asked Drew, as they approached the town of Win-
ton. Theres a real nice pub ]ust up here on the left, so if you do, wed better get back into
the left lane!"
Errol, who was parched by the unusual, dry heat showed his eagerness for a drink
by immediately moving back into the left lane. The hotel was almost opposite the turnoff
for the road that would take them home to Glengarry. Errol drove into the pub carpark,
and within a matter of seconds they were pushing their way through a crowd of sweaty
drinkers, toward the bar. The place was filled with the almost deafening noise of patrons
arguing and laughing in groups of three or four. One thing struck Errol immediately. The
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noticeable scarcity of chairs and tables, which he had always been accustomed to finding
in American bars and Scottish pubs.
Drew told him that the idea was that, in an Australian bar, you stood and drank until
you became so legless that you fell down, then you were promptly tossed out of the door
to make room for another, fresh patron! To Errol this sounded too much like a NacDon-
nell leg-pull to be true and he gave his friend a sidelong, cynical look.
Drew caught the barmaids eye and ordered two glasses of Fourex. Within seconds
they were holding foaming glasses of the ice-cold amber fluid. Errol took a sip at his beer
and nearly choked at the sharp, bitter taste of it! Holy Cow!" he gasped, how can you
guys drink this for pleasure? !ts like drinking goddamn frozen acid!" But he nevertheless
took another long sip at his beer.
Just give it time, Errol," said Drew with a cunning grin, itll soon start tasting like
bloody amDIsIa! Youll see!" Then he drained his own glass and thumped it down on the
bar-counter which was covered by a long red velvety runner. He signaled the barmaid
again to fetch them two more Fourexes.
!ll get these, Drew!" said Errol, reaching for his wallet.
Drew shook his head, Your moneys no good here, mate. This is m) shout!" He then
had to explain to Errol all about a round of beers in an Aussie pub being a 5nu! on the
part of the purchaser. The term Shout" applied to an) free treat, such as being taken to
the movies, at someone elses expense. Errol, who had already heard many weird
expressions used by Drew during their years together in Edinburgh, realized he still had a
lot more to learn about Australian idioms.
Just then, a large, sunburnt, sweaty and hairy individual, clad in a battered bush
hat, a faded navy-blue singlet and tattered beige shorts, and wearing rubber thongs or
flip-flops" on his feet, butted into their conversation. You a bloody Yank, eh?" he asked
Errol, with a wide, gap-toothed grin. How]er loike it over ère, mate? Òt enough for yer,
is it?" His attitude was one of overbearingly friendly arrogance.
Errol stared at him for a minute, wondering if he was being targeted for some sort of
abuse. !f so, it wouldnt be the first time. Hed met Anti-Americans before in Scotland, and
he still had the scars to prove it! However, he felt a gentle nudge from Drew, so he
decided to play it cool. Especially since the guy looked like he could eat him for breakfast!
Yeah, thats right, buddy!" he said, with a pleasant grin. !ts great over here, ]udging
from what !ve seen so far! The goddamn heat takes a bit of beating, though! Dunno how
you fellers can stand it!"
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The beer-bellied giant treated him to another ex-bruiser grin. You wouldnt wanna
be ère in the bloody summI then, mate. Were not outa bloody spIIng yet! What aI yer,
anyway - a tourist? Thought youse Yanks only came over to àve a gig at Ayers bloody
Rock or swan around the Reef, or to play about on our beaches like the bloody Nips! Dont
get too many of youse blokes out ère in the Outback!" He paused to drain his glass, and
then wiped the froth off his wide mouth. Watcher drinkin, mate? Another beer?" and
before Errol could pluck up the courage to refuse, he found himself looking at a third glass
of the fiercely powerful amber fluid!
Ne names Alf, by the way." said the stranger. Whats yours, mate?"
Oh, sorry! Ny name Errol"!" said Errol, proffering his hand.
The big man took it and crushed Errols fingers almost to pulp in a grip of iron.
Gday! Pleaster meetcha, Errol, mate!" he grinned. Then, nodding toward Drew, he said,
Oos yer cobber, there, Errol? Yank too, is he?"
But before Errol could answer, Drew spoke up for himself. Naw, mite. Oim a local,
meself!" he said, adopting the broad local Ocker dialect. Ès an old school-pal of mine,
wudd]a believe? `!s folks took ìm out to Yankeeland when è was still a bloody ]oey, an
this is ìs first time back in Ozzie! Oim ]us draggin ìm around the traps, like, ter get the
genral àng ò the old plice agine! Oh, yeah! An me nimes Drew", mite! !ts orright, Oi
already eard yours - Alf", isnit?"
Then Drew stretched forth his own huge right hand. Owyergoin, Alf, mite?" he
said, crunching Alfs fingers in his own special bone-crushing grip - one that Bob had
taught him to use as youngster, when meeting school-bullies. !t had always proved to be
a great Dn!-Mss-WI!n-M introduction, and worked like a magic charm in establishing
an order of dominance with would-be tough guys. Just as it did this time. The agonized
look on Alfs face showed that it s!III worked!
Errol was thankful for Drews intervention, not because of any timidity on his part, as
he could handle himself very well. As Drew himself had discovered during sparring-bouts
in the Uni gymnasium - and when theyd been drawn into occasional brawls (n! / !nII
wn maKIng, I! I! D n!} in Scottish pubs! No, Errol was simply not given to using
violence or shows of strength. !ntellect and wit were his principal weapons of offence or
defence.
However, once this supremacy issue was resolved, Alf proved to be a source of great
fascination to Errol, as he fitted perfectly the archetypal insensitive, Iugn-as-Dags, IIp-
)I-gu!s-u!, beer-bellied, loud-mouthed, aggressive Aussie male hed always been in-
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doctrinated into believing. The classic American perception of the average Australian. A
perception he would soon discover to be totally erroneous.
Errol also saw Drew in a new light as a consummate `character actor! Hed always
striven at Uni to put across a quiet, genteel scholarly image, but his present performance
would have had Hollywood baying at his heels waving movie contracts! Forget CIII
Dun and even 1nIana Jns, or PamD, come to that! Drew was more the
strong, silent uI! AnIvI type, who had no need to show off his prowess with fists,
knives or bullwhips.
Suddenly Drew, who had left Errol to converse with, or rather IIs!n ! Alf for a while,
caught a tiny fragment of heated conversation from the far end of the bar, where a group
of younger men were talking about the !nternet. He slid along closer within earshot,
taking his glass with him. One of the young guys, a ginger-headed youth who perfectly
fitted the mould of a science-geek, aged around eighteen or nineteen - was holding forth
about flying saucers and suchlike strange sci-fi" marvels - phenomena not unknown in
Queensland, since many sightings had been made around the northern region of the
state, as well as crop-circles" and the celebrated MIn-MIn LIgn!s around the sugarcane
country.
He was clearly a well-traveled Web explorer as he had evidently read a lot of con-
spiracy theories about secret bases and underground labyrinths under America and other
places around the globe. He had ]ust broached the sub]ect of UFOs being from InsI !n
aI!n, and his pals were decrying the idea. The alcohol added fuel to their fervent desire
to contribute their own two-cents worth.
No, mate, thats a load of crap!" one of his detractors cried. How the hell could
anything come out of a place thats full of molten magma? Except for Iava, of course!" he
added, to the amusement of his pals. !ll grant you there aI caves in the bloody crust,
but how far down can you go in !na! heat without bein roasted alive! Havent you heard of
the Deeper-Hotter" principle? What did you in the Physics class, Kev - pIa) with
yourself? !ts obvious that you werent payin attention to the physics teacher, anyhow!"
The one called Kev ]ust laughed back at him. By Cripes, mate!" he said, Youre ]ust
another born mug! Dont you g! I! yet? All of the so-called science" they teach kids in
High School and Uni is ]ust a load of complete bollocks! !f you had half a bloody brain,
mate, youd know that all they teach is pure bloody THEORY! !ll bet you London to a
bloody brick that you cant tell me who it was who went down through the Earths crust
and saw that it was all magma inside, AND that there was a bloody great ball of nickel iron
at its center! Go on then, you know-all bastard! Who was this great scientist who proved
all that crap to be true?"
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Another of the young men suggested Jules verne" - to the mirth of his mates.
No!" yelled Kev, An it wasnt bloody DavI 1nns or ADnI bloody PII), either!
You know wn)?" He looked around his circle of listeners challengingly. Well !ll tell you. !t
was NO bastard! Nobodys been deeper that three kilometers into the earth, an thats in
a diamond mine in Africa! TnI DI) /aI!In KIIm!Is1 So how can bloody Science
sa) or even bloody Knw whats IaII) down there?"
Another of the group said that hed heard that geologists could test it out by means
of seismic shock waves from earthquakes. He received a sneering reception from Kev,
who asked him how they could tell wnIn way such waves traveled around the Earth. !
reckon they ]ust travel aIun !n Ius!!" he told them all, shortly.
OK then, you smart sod!" said his first antagonist, turning from the bar where he
was ]ust paying for his shout of drinks. What do )u reckon Is inside, then? And wn told
)u? Go on, smart-arse! Were all hanginon your every bloody word!"
All right, then!" said Kev, !t was AmIIaI B)I of the American Navy! He flew a
plane right inside the Earth, through a hole up at the North Pole, and.."
A laughing detractor interrupted him: Up the hole in your aIs, you mean!"
At this point Kev took a wild swing at the offender, who turned around to duck, and
knocked a full beer-glass out of an elderly but hefty patrons hand, ]ust as he lifted it off
the bar. Drew backed off hurriedly, knowing that a stouch" was in the offing. He swiftly
downed what was left in his glass, then grabbed Errol, who was in mid-sentence chatting
with Alf, and hauled him protesting off to the door.
Lets get the hell out of here!" he yelled, above the rising uproar behind him. You
dont want to see this, mate! !t wont be a pretty sight!"
As they exited through the bar-door, a thrown stool hit the door-frame beside them.
Errol risked a quick glance back as he went out. The whole bar seemed to have erupted
into a scene highly reminiscent of a Clint Eastwood spaghetti Western.
Holy Smoke! What the hell nappn in there, Drew!" he asked as they made for
the station ute. Yu didnt start it all, did you, buddy?"
No." replied Drew with a sly grin, but your famous Rear-Admiral Richard bloody
Byrd did - when he wrote all that Secret-Diary" garbage about those Hebrew Hindus and
their bloody Nazi flugelard saucers, welcoming him to the !nner Earth!"
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Errol stared at him in bewilderment as a police patrol-car slowed past them into the
pub carpark. What the purple blazes could Richard E, Byrd have to do with a bar-brawl
in the Queensland outback, Drew? ! dont quite get the connection?"
Dont worry about it!" said Drew, reaching for the car-keys. !ts a long story! Re-
mind me to tell you all about later, mate!" Then he gunned the engine, and, as the hotel
rapidly began to empty, they turned out across the highway and headed northward to-
wards Glengarry and home.
As the sun dropped swiftly toward the western horizon, they turned on to the long
private dirt track up to the Glengarry Station where a humongus hot evening meal awaited
them.
Joan had a fine roast dinner almost ready to serve, and the glorious aroma that hit
them as they entered the house was so mouth-watering that they postponed their much-
needed showers until afterwards. A quick wash sufficed instead, then they ]oined the rest
of the family at the huge dining table. !t was a wonderful meal, and afterwards, Drew
brought in the goodies hed picked up in Longreach. Joan and kids were delighted with
Drews treats - as also was Bob, with his slab of beer!
Then, after they had luxuriated in a nice hot shower, the two retired to Errols room
to check over his maps and prints, and to get down to brass tacks regarding their pro-
posed search for an !nterior portal". Young Charlie followed them in but Drew told him to
buzz off and get lost. Then Errol hauled out his bundle of charts. The thick roll of colour
copy prints he produced would have choked a tyrannosaurus! Hed obviously worked very
assiduously in amassing the maps and satellite photos of possible sites in Australia He
had focused upon the oldest parts of the continent first, which were largely in Western
Australia and the Northern Territory.
This was because the western half of the vast island continent - which is as large as
the United States, excluding Alaska - is believed by geologists to be part of the original
Gondwanaland, its geological foundation being composed largely of Precambrian Archaean
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and Proterozoic bedrock. Australia, being located almost centrally on the Australian-!n-
dian tectonic plate, had been preserved almost intact since separating from its ad]oining
continents, Antarctica and !ndia.
New Zealand, however, which Errol had also considered - being right upon the
eastern edge of this plate - had not been so lucky. The double-island was still paying the
price for its precarious position on the edge of the plate by frequent earthquakes and
other tectonic disturbances. These were largely attributable to its immediate proximity to
the Kermadec-Tonga Trench, a very deep rift in the crust nearly 35,000 feet or seven miles
deep. !t was the second deepest part of the world-ocean after the 1000 feet deeper
Narianas Trench that edged the Philippines! All such trenches are naturally volcanic by
nature, due to the ceaseless enormous friction between the Earths tectonic plates. Be-
cause of this, they werent really very safe bets for stable foundational rocks. So Errol had
to delete New Zealand from his contemplation.
But this wasnt to say that Australia had a totally clear record for tectonic activity. !ts
entire eastern coastal belt had been an almost continuous string of volcanoes in the an-
cient past! volcanoes that had most probably arisen from the Tasman Sea, before the
uplift of the present richly-soiled and verdant coastal strip, where 90 of Australians
currently live! However, as Errol pointed out, extinct volcanoes themselves were no
barrier to !nner Earth exploration, since they were great funnels into the Earths outer
crust. !f one could ]ust find a way past the solid mountainous lava-plugs that remained to
mark their locations - this could turn out to be a quick way through to the middle of the
crust! However, the negative aspect of this idea might prove to be the existent of an
impassable, enclosed layer of subterranean lava sandwiched between the two halves of
the crust. There was ]ust no way of knowing if this was s!III mI!n, or had solidified, like
its ancient vents.
At this point, Drew put in his ten-cents worth. !t might not be inconceivable, he
opined, that I/ such a layer of lava na existed under eastern Australia - or anywhere else,
for that matter - it might very easily have burst through both the external an !n In!InaI
suI/as, at the same time! !f this were so, then they would possibly be able to follow
open lava or gas-tubes both into the u!I crust, and u! agaIn on to the In!InaI surface!
Errol was rather amazed at this bright idea. !t simply hadnt occurred to him at all!
But it did seem to make pretty sound sense! Naybe !na! was the way to go, then. Just
like old Professor Hardwigg and his English nephew, Harry, had done with their !celandic
guide, Hans, in vernes JuIn) T !n Cn!I / Tn aI!n!
However, Drew dragged him back to earth with a thump by pointing out that vernes
story, even though well-reasoned, was only pure /I!In. Even the volcano, Mun! 5n/-
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/Is, was an invention too, as far as he knew - and, besides, it had only become extinct
relatively recently, a mere 800 years earlier! He personally felt that they might be a lot
safer if they followed a more benign route, through the original Proterozoic bedrock - I/
such a route could be discovered among its folds and creases. He had been thinking
about places such as the southwest corner of Western Australia, around Albany, or maybe
the vast Kimberley region up in WAs northwest corner. Also there were some excellent
areas in the top End of the Northern Territory which deserved a close look.
For instance, the Gregory National Park plateau on the victoria River had been found
to conceal a really big tunnel-network that was only ]ust being opened up! This was the
Bullita Cave System, and had already been checked out up to 38 miles - with much
more left to be explored!
!n fact, come to think of it, most of the northern part of Australia - even Far North
Queensland - had some terrific likely sites on offer. !n the southern half, there was also
the Nullarbor Plain and Nount Gambier region of South Australia, which was full of sInK-
nIs and large caverns, and was also the site of an ancient vIan. Or there was always
Tasmania - a genuinely mysterious 1sIan A! Tn B!!m O/ Tn WII geologically
speaking!
Or, failing any of these - since Errol was so keenly Iap! in the vIanI Iu! - what
about the Mun! WaInIng area on the NSW-Queensland coastal border? That had once
been a gigantic shield-volcano - one of the largest on Earth. The ancient crater, was now
a rich dairy-grazing area surrounding the gigantic lava-plug of Nount Warning. But it was
still encircled for two thirds of its ancient diameter by a great mountain range covered in
a dense rainforest-]ungle, much of it as yet unexplored!
They both sat beside the bed, which was covered by large poster-sized maps and
colour-prints of topographical charts of Australia, as well as aerial and satellite photo
blowups. Drew was astonished at all the effort Errol had obviously put into gathering all
this wealth of visual data together. !f anything, however, it was probably ]ust ! mun!
They were almost overwhelmed by all the myriad possibilities that lay spread out before
them! But at least they na made a good start upon weighing up the fundamentals of
their quest. !t came basically down to two alternatives. Either Errols volcanic lava-tube
idea, or Drews cavern-tunnel approach.
Finally, Drew yawned and stretched his arms wide above his head. ! dunno about
you, mate," he said, but frankly !m completely shot! ! reckon we ought to pack it in for
tonight and sleep on it. Naybe tomorrow we might be able to come back to it all with a
fresh new angle. What dyou reckon, Erb?"
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Erb, who was himself fighting of waves of sleepiness, agreed. !t had been a pretty
eventful day, and he too was both physically and mentally exhausted. Fine by me, Drew,
old buddy!" Then he added with a grin, But ! s!III fancy the vIanI route, myself! And
to hell with Jules verne and his goddamn Professor!"
Then he paused, and his sleepy eyes suddenly opened wide. Hey, Hey! Speaking
of Pro1essors, Drew, - we could ]ust do with some input from old Din Dins" right
about now! Remember how he once said hed like to be there if we ever discovered the
!nner Earth?" He beamed at Drew, and Drew beamed back.
! wonder what the old Prof is up to, right about now, mate?" he pondered. What
say we give him a call tomorrow, Errol? !f ! remember correctly, !tll be about the middle
of the half-yearly break at Edinburgh!"
A huge grin spread over Errols face. Hey, )an! Why dont we invite him over for a
w DI! DIuI) nIIa)! He was always complaining that he never had time to relax,
wasnt he! Lets phone the poor old guy first thing in the morning!"
No!" said Drew, !ts ]ust gone ten p.m. - that makes it !wIv nn vI !nI!
Why dont we call him !nIgn!! !t might spoil his lunch, but at least wed be more likely to
catch him hanging around the old Alma Nater! What dyou reckon, Errol, snaII w? ! dont
think Bob or Joan will mind us using their phone for an overseas call - especially since !m
the one whose now paying their bills!"
Why the hell n!!" agreed Errol, now wide awake and grinning widely. Lets I!!"
Drew went out into the big lounge room, where his Num was sitting knitting, alone,
Bob having already watched his favorite Tv show and gone to bed much earlier, as is the
habit of outback cattlemen. The youngsters were also in bed, so Drew quietly asked Joan
if she minded him making an overseas call to his old university.
Joan had no ob]ections at all, ]ust as long as he tried not to wake up the whole
household. She also added that shed left them some supper on the side if they wanted
a bite to eat before bed. Drew thanked her politely and, unplugging the handset, took
it into Errols room, which was the farthest away from the rest of the house. En route, he
collected his own address-book which still contained a lot of old phone-numbers - mostly
of girls hed known in Scotland - as well as that of Edinburgh University. As he plugged
the phone into the wall socket, he wondered if Professor Dinwiddie would still be at the
University. When Drew and Errol had called on him at his study to bid him farewell, hed
told them hed been contemplating a long sea-voyage, as he had several months worth of
unused holidays. Drew had promptly suggested a nice cruise Down Under, and Errol, not
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to be outdone, had recommended a cruise to the United States as an equally attractive
goal for an excellent holiday.
The Professor had chuckled at the pleasant prospect, but the two brand-new gradu-
ates felt that he was too set in his ways to ever leave his beloved Scottish seat of learning
- even when the place was practically deserted. !t would take at least a couple of crow-
bars and several sticks of dynamite to dislodge the old curmudgeon from his comfortable
ivory tower! Professor Dinwiddie was simply a dyed-in-the-wool academic - and an
incurable workaholic, at that, too! His desk alone had borne silent testimony to that,
being burdened under an enormous pile of assorted tomes and bundles of computer
printouts, as also was every other level surface, including the chairs, in the big gloomy
room!
Dinwiddie had been like some ancient alchemist toiling in a dark dank cellar, only
emerging periodically to loudly deliver - entirely without notes - his ponderous but unfor-
gettable lectures, in his broad Highland accent, with both ham like fists gripping the edges
of the masters gown which he always proudly wore, as well as his tasseled old mortar-
board. He had been regarded as somewhat of an anachronism by the rest of the science
faculty, who had long ago abandoned such scholarly trappings in favor of leather-elbowed
sport-coats and flannels.
However, his encyclopedic knowledge and mastery of his particular sub]ect was
indisputable and unmatched in the whole of Britain. Nor was he above personally tutoring
such minds as he considered worthy among his charges. True, there were several official
tutors on the department staff, but Dinwiddie felt a compulsive inner need to cram all he
could of his vast academic knowledge directly into the brains of these selected fledglings.
!n much the same way as a golden eagle might forcible thrust morsels of freshly-killed
rabbit down the throats of her young.
Both Drew and Errol had attracted his attention in this respect, despite their curious
extramural pursuits into other realms of arcane philosophy on the sub]ect of geophysics.
They both had powerfully inquiring minds into their chosen sub]ect, and that was enough
for Professor Dinwiddie to take them under his personal wing! He knew instinctively that
they would derive lasting benefit from his tutelage, and would put his valuable knowledge
to good use. Unlike many of the dolts who passed through the grueling course success-
fully, only to end up pursuing some totally alien and humdrum occupation in the outside
world!
These were the thoughts that ran swiftly through Drews mind as he looked up the
phone number of the faraway university, then dialed in the numbers. Soon, after a melo-
dious procession of blips and beeps, he heard a crystal-clear womans voice advising him
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that he was talking to the Secretarys Office of Edinburgh University and how could she
help him. He quickly explained who he was and that he was speaking from Australia,
and would like to speak to Professor Dinwiddie of the Geophysics Department. He was
then requested to hold the line whist the call was transferred. Then after speaking to
another young woman, and repeating his request, he was again put on hold for a minute
or more.
Then suddenly he heard a familiar Scots voice, booming almost deafeningly over the
ether. Halloo! This is Professor Dinwiddie, speaking! Whom dae Ah have the plaisure of
addressing? And dae ye no ken that yeve pulled me awa from mah damned lunch!"
Drew almost burst out laughing , and Errol saw a great grin spread across his face. He
quickly placed his own ear next to the receiver in order to hear the crusty old Prof sound-
ing off down the line.
Hello, sir!" said Drew, politely. Sorry to disturb you, Professor, but its Andrew
NacDonell speaking from Queensland, Australia. ! dont know if you remember me or not,
sir, but ! left the University a couple of months back!" There was a moment of silence at
the other end, then suddenly the Professors voice returned. This time sounding far less
aggressive. Weel, Weel! Young NacDonell, eh? And all the way from Australia! How are
ye, mah boy! Ah recall ye verra weel indeed! To what, might Ah ask, do Ah owe the verra
great plaisure o this call?" Drew explained as briefly as possible the expedition that he
and Errol were planning to embark upon, and, ignoring the Professors attempted inter-
]ections, he reminded him of his stated wish to be present when they discovered an
entrance into the inner Earth, and that, if hed really meant what hed said, how would he
like an all-expenses paid air-trip to Australia to ]oin them for a few weeks? This really
silenced the professor for quite a few long-drawn-out moments.
So much so indeed, that Drew, wondering if the poor old chap had fainted or some-
thing, had to shout down the phone: HII1 HII1 Pro1essor O1nw1dd1e1 AI )u sI1II
Inere, sII7 HeIIo7 Then, in a much more subdued tone, he at last heard the Professors
voice again.
Nan! Are ye really serious aboot what yere saying tae me? Ahve never set foot
oot o Britain, let alone flappin off in an aeroplane tae the other side o the world! What
on Airth would ye want of a bumblinauld mannie setch as mahself? Och, aye! Ah mind
weel what ye and yere American pal - Beddows - was it?- were up tae wi yere Hollow
Airth nonsense, but Ah didna expect it would last long. Ah would have thought yere
faither would have ye oot sairchin for oil or minerals in yon Australian Ootback o yours, by
now!" Drew quickly filled him in about the sudden death of his father and that he was
more interested in pursuing his original goal than such mundane commercial activities.
He also added that Errol had come over from America and was there beside him as he
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spoke, and that his name was BuIIugns - not Beddows!
Before Dinwiddie could reply, Drew quickly went on to say that, even if the expedi-
tion was a bit beyond him, the offer of a nice holiday Down Under still stood, regardless.
They would both sincerely en]oy meeting him again. So was he interested or not? All he
had to do was to say Yes" or No" - either way they would understand. !f he liked, they
could send him a email message with more details of their plans, and he could make his
mind up from there? !n any event, they would dearly love to have the benefit of his
advice as to choosing the best route, and would be ever in his debt if he could spare them
the time?
Drew and Errol then had to endure another drawn-out silence from the other end.
They could almost hear the Professors mind whirring away like clockwork as he mulled
over this astounding proposition. Then suddenly, he was back. Andrew, Nah bonnie
wee man, ye can coont me in!" They both almost whooped with delight.
A mon would have tae be a daft idiot tae refuse such a fine kindness." Continued
the professor, Ahm muire than ready for a guide break awa from this place, so Ahm at
yere disposal! What will Ah hae to dae now, then? Ahll hae tae advise the Dean that
Ahm taking some leave, ocourse, but a dinna think hell raise any ob]ection. Hes been
airging me tae take some leave for years! Pairhaps Yell arrange mah travel and suchlike
from your ain end? Anyhoo, Ahd appreciate it if ye can send me an email message aboot
a that? Ahll ]ust get the Secretary tae pass our email address on tae ye - But fairst,
Andrae, might Ah hae a quick word or two with Harold, if ye dinna mind?"
Drew nearly exploded with mirth at this, and quickly handed over the phone to
Errol. Here you go, HaII," he grinned. Youd better spII u! your name for the dear
old nong!" then he went in search of a pencil and paper ready to note down the Professors
email address.
By the time he returned, he found Errol nodding and grinning and inter]ecting the
occasional Yep!" or Nope!" in response to Dinwiddies rambling remarks. He was clearly
almost stifling himself to death with inner mirth and delight at what ever was being said to
him. Then finally, he gasped out: OK, Prof! ! better hand you back to Andrew now! Been
great talking to you, sir, and !m sure looking forward to seeing you again real soon! Catch
you later, Prof!" Then he passed the instrument back to Drew, and slumped down on to
the floor, his sides heaving in an agony of silent laughter. Drew was also having a ]ob to
control his own mirth.
He dutifully listened whilst a female voice spelled out an email address for him and
he ]otted it down with a still-quaking hand. Errols laughter really was extremely infec-
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tious! Then she told him the professor wanted one last word before they rang off. The
dear old Scot came back on the line and thanked him again profusely for his kindness. He
told him hed be only to happy to be in at the discovery - if there vI was one, of course,
which he doubted. But hed certainly offer them all the assistance he could in helping
direct them underground.
However, he hinted darkly, that they should think it all over be very carefully. The
only place they mIgn! discover down there could )us! pssIDI) be the vI) Ias! place any
good Christian soul would ever wish to find themselves in! However, that was a wee
puzzle" hed leave for them to figure out for themselves!
He ended up his long-winded discourse by wishing them both every good fortune,
and that he looked forward to receiving Drews email, and would hopefully be seeing them
in the very near future. One final touch of his cynical whimsy was his last query. Would he
need to bring his umbrella? Then, cackling happily, he rang off.
Whew!" gasped Drew, hanging up the phone and slumping back in his chair. !d
forgotten what a blooming talker the Prof was! !m beginning to wonder if we did the
right thing, mate!" He grinned fiendishly at Errol who was still red-faced and sweating
from all his stifled laughter. What do )u think, Harold?"
Errol collapsed again into a heap, sniggering uncontrollably. Drew saw that he
wasnt going to get much more sense from him that night, so, with a little wave and a
beaming grin, he departed for his own room and the blessed comfort of his bed.
!t was already broad daylight when the two awoke. And they received a fairly cool
welcome from Joan when, at length, they completed their ablutions and appeared in the
big kitchen, as hungry as starving lions. Well !ll be blowed!" cried Joan with more than
a touch of heavy irony. Just look what the blooming cat dragged in! ! suppose that youll
be looking for your Iunns, will you?" Drew glanced up at the large kitchen clock that
hung upon the twelve-foot high painted vee-]ay timber wallboards. !t said seven-
twenty-five!
Whilst this might not have been anything remarkable to a city-dweller, Drew realized
that in the outback, where the working-day began at anywhere between four and five
a.m. it was terribly late! He apologized ab]ectly to Joan for their lateness, as also did
Errol.
Guess it was all my fault, Nrs. Jackson!" he mumbled. Drew was all set to push off
to bed, when ! suggested we ring our old Professor in Edinburgh!" He looked at her
rather sheepishly, with a Nea Culpa" ghost of smile on his face. So ! guess if you want to
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take it out on me, !ll understand!"
Errol, who was a rather handsome and well-mannered young man, had always been
able to charm the birds off the trees. And this time he got away with it once again, which
was no great surprise to Drew. He recalled Errols powers of persuasion with the opposite
sex in their University days, all too well! !t had led Drew, who, although red-blooded
enough, was a tad inept and clumsy around girls, into all sorts of embarrassing situations
over the past four years.
However, he was relieved to see that Joan fell for Errols meekly-sheepish" line like
a ton of bricks. Soon they were tucking into a scrumptious breakfast. Joan sat down with
them to en]oy a cup of coffee, her mid-morning 5mK as she called it, much to Errols
mystification. !t fell to Drew to explain the origins and continued tradition of 5mK
TIm, which had begun way back in the early days of the original colonists, as a mid-
morning break when the shearing-shed hands could pause for a breather and en]oy a nice
mug of billy-tea and a pipe of baccy.
By the way." said Joan, after Errol had absorbed this bit of Australiana lore. Did you
manage to catch your Professor on the phone, Drew? ! heard you talking and laughing as
! went to bed, but ! didnt know if you were on the phone or not." !n actual fact, she really
knew they had! Joan was as inquisitive as most of her gender, and had listened on her
bedroom extension for a few brief seconds to a Scottish voice addressing Drew. Of course
she hadnt listened in to their entire conversation. She had merely wished to check if they
had got through to Scotland.
Oh, yes!" said Drew, clapping his hand to his forehead. ! completely forgot to tell
you, Num! !ve invited Professor Dinwiddie over for a few weeks holiday, and ! meant to
check with you if he could come and stay here, or whether ! should book him into a hotel
in Longreach! ! dont want to impose on you, Num, but we both thought itd be sort of a
repayment for all his patience and long-suffering with us both over the last few years!
After all, if it hadnt been for him, Num, we might have bombed out on our Geophysics
course. He gave us a hell of a lot of his spare time helping us to cram for our finals. !
reckon its the least we could do for the dear old bloke! Dyou think youd be able to fit him
in here, or not?"
Joan considered this piece of news for a moment. Then she asked Just how I is
this aI I PI/ssI, Drew? He might not take too kindly to all the rumpus that the
kids kick up. You know how grumpy some old fellers can get! !ts not the room or the
board thats the problem. ! ]ust dont want him to find himself stuck in a madhouse for
weeks on end!"
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Drew grinned. Well hes not actually got one foot in the grave and the other on a
banana-skin, Num, if thats what youre thinking! !d reckon him to be around the /I/!)-
mark or thereabouts - dont you, Errol?" Errol nodded his agreement, and Drew went on:
He doesnt knock around on a stick, or in a bath chair or anything like that!" Then he
turned bright red, as it suddenly dawned on him that Bob and Joan were themselves both
far into their late forties! Wna! a DI) DIK 1 am1 he thought, mentally giving himself a
kick up the backside. Tna!s KnK !na! n !n DImIng na1
Fortunately, Joan, who knew Drews weakness for blurting out silly remarks without
first pausing to think, chose to overlook his /aux pas. !nstead she put their minds at ease.
Oh, ! dont call InaI I, Drew! You do exaggerate, dont you! Why he and Bob should
get on like a house afire - especially if he likes a drink!"
Drew recalled Old Din Dins penchant for an occasional wee dram of aged-in-the-
wood Highland Dew. But he couldnt quite picture the Professor downing ice-cold Fourex
Bitter straight from the can or stubby! However, he decided to take the optimistic course.
!m sure they will, Num!" He grinned at her, lying through his even white teeth.
After breakfast - I aII) Iunn1 - Drew suggested that Errol might like to go out
riding with him - provided that Errol could II a nIs of course! Errol almost hit the roof
. Hey! Bro!" he grinned. Dont start in on m! ! learned to ride before ! could even
goddamn waIK, buddy! Dont forget where !m from, buster! The land of the original
cowboy breed, man!"
Drew grinned back at him. Hang on a tick, mate! Since when did they have cow-
boys around Detroit? Just because you can /I) doesnt mean youre descended from
bloody Hopalong Cassidy! Anyhow, lets get over to the old corral and rustle you up a
geegee, eh!" After changing into suitable clothes, boots and spurs, and donning their
shady akubras, they rambled off across the homestead yard ]oshing each other about their
prowess as horsemen. As they approached the big stable building, they met Bob, who,
on hearing about their prospective visitor, seemed quite happy about the idea. His only
reservation was to be expected. "Youll have to clear it all with your Num of course, Drew,
son! ! dont want her to."
But Drew hastened to assure him that it was already settled and that she was in full
agreement with the Professor coming to stay at Glengarry. Oh, well, thats all right then!"
said Bob. "No bloody worries!" Then, upon hearing they were off for a ride, he took them
down to the paddock and picked out a horse for Errol.
Here you go, young feller!" he grinned benignly. This heres Daisy - as nice and
gentle a little mare as youd ever wish to meet!" Daisy greeted Errol with a wild toss of
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her large head and a glaring white-ringed eyeball, pawing the ground skittishly with a
outsize hoof. Errol suddenly realized once again that Bob still intended putting him
through the hoop for his wild flying a couple of days earlier! Hed ]ust have to prove
himself up to the challenge! Neanwhile, as Bob helped Errol to catch and saddle up Daisy
and Daemon, Drew had gone off into the barn. He returned a few minutes later with a
couple of big flashlights that hed refilled with new batteries, plus some coils of thin but
enormously tough nylon rope, and a small sackful of odds and ends. He didnt say any-
thing, but ]ust smiled mysteriously at the others.
Just something !m itching to show you, mate!" he told Errol. Tell you when we get
there!" Then, after rolling the gear into a sack and tying it behind the saddle, he put his
left boot into the stirrup and swung his right leg easily over Daemons back. The large roan
stallion didnt flinch this time. Hed already sniffed at Drew and recognized him as a friend.
Now it was Errols turn to clamber onto Daisys back, but the mare kept on sidling
away craftily each time he tried to swing his free leg up. Bob grinned widely at these
antics, which only served to make Errol more flustered. !n the end, Drew got the general
idea of Bobs little game, so he grabbed hold of Daisys bridle and held her still until Errol
was safely up in the saddle. Then, with a conspiratorial wink from Bob, he set off down
the back paddock, with Errol bringing up the rear on a still recalcitrant Daisy. She soon
settled down however, and they headed off toward the distant hilly region where Drew
had examined the curious outcrop, some twenty-odd miles west of the station.
Once out of Bobs range of vision, Errol turned out to be an excellent rider, and they
en]oyed a gentle canter across the wide brown country side by side. Drew had more
sense than to attempt any sort of racing, as it was much too hot in the near midday heat,
and he didnt want to tire the horses unnecessarily. Fortunately, the property was well
supplied with still-brimming water-holes, so they had no fears of their mounts becoming
too dehydrated.
Errol peered around the landscape with great interest as they went along. He was
accustomed to riding around the lush green grass and woodlands of Nichigan, and had
never ridden across the dry western plains of America in his life. Yet nevertheless, he
seemed to feel as if he was a! nm in this faraway land of Down Under. Even the heat
seemed a little more tolerable than it had seemed in the utility the day before.
At least it was nice and dry! Not like the sticky, humid heat hed encountered after
hed arrived at Brisbane !nternational Airport! The flies were the only problem. They
clung to ones eyelashes, ears and lips in an infuriating way, as they searched for moisture.
But hed heard that the msquI!s in the subtropics of coastal Queensland were really
something else in summertime! He didnt really fancy coastal Australia at all! Yet that
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was where ninety-percent of Australians chose to live! They were quite a weird bunch of
people, really! But he had found them amazingly easygoing. Well, thus far, anyhow!
He was suddenly aroused from this mood of comfortable daydreaming when Drew
reached across and grabbed his arm. Hey! Over there, mate! Theres your first Willy-
Willy!" He pulled the brim of his hat a little lower and stared in the direction of Drews
pointing finger. A whirling column of dust and dried weed was weaving its way erratically
across the semidesert toward them. Errol had experienced tornadoes in the States, but
only in darkly-overcast, stormy weather, and never at close quarters. But the willy-willy
seemed fairly innocuous to him, especially since there was no rumbling thunder or black
clouds overhead. There was a noticeably strong hot breeze blowing and the dust of the
willy-willy formed a large cloud overhead, but there seemed to be no real weather con-
nected with it. And, even as he watched, it suddenly collapsed and vanished like a desert
ghost. But now Drew was pointing toward something else, and Errol could make out a
low range of ]agged rock on the skyline a few miles ahead.
Thats where were heading, mate!" said Drew excitedly. You may find this a bit
more interesting!" then he slapped his horse into a canter, and Errol followed suit. !t
didnt take very long to reach the curiously-formed orange-red outcrop, and soon they
had dismounted and walked the horses into one of the large shallow caves out of the hot
sun. Here, Drew unfastened the bundled sack from Daemons saddle and withdrew the
two large flashlights from it, as well as the coils of fine nylon rope. Come on, Erb." he
said. !ts around the back of this big rock!" But Errol was keenly inspecting some of the
aboriginal cave paintings and handprints upon the smooth rock walls of the ad]acent
caves.
Aah! So this is the actual FaII-DInKum aboriginal native art of Australia, eh, Drew!"
he said enthusiastically. ! wish !d brought my goddamn camera with me now! Nom
asked me to be sure and take her plenty of pretty pictures back!" However, Drew hastily
assured him that thered be plenty of time for all that later on. !n the meantime would he
please come on and have a dekko at what hed found!
Errol became ]ust as excited as Drew when he showed him the long dark tunnel that
burrowed away deep into the surrounding towering rocks. Did you take a look inside
yet?" he asked, flashing his torch into its black depths. No way!" replied Drew. Not on
my bloody own, old son! No bloody fear! !ve saved this one up till you got here so we
could check it out together! ! dont expect itll be what were IaII) looking for, but at
least, its a good chance to g! uI /! w!, so to speak!"
As it turned out, however, there was little likelihood of wet feet, since the whole area
was a dry as a bone. Drew led the way flashing his powerful light up and down, and side
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to side as they proceeded.
!t was certainly no small find, as the tunnel steadily widened into quite a sizeable
cavern as they went forward. The floor was comparatively even and sandy, but, most
importantly, it gradually went downhill. Eventually they came to a point where the cavern
divide into two tunnels and the ceiling rapidly descended quite low above their heads.
Before they left the big cavern, Drew tied one end of a coil of the thin nylon rope around
a column of protruding rock, and paid it out behind them as they headed on down the left-
hand tunnel.
As Drew flashed the torch beam ahead of them, Errol shone his into the little grot-
toes than branched off the passageway. They all looked as if they might lead somewhere,
but they could only follow one trail at a time. Drew turned around at on point as Errol was
flashing his torch down a particularly inviting side-tunnel, and suggested that it might be
a good idea if he switched off his torch, so that they would have back-up if his failed for
some reason. Errol thought this was a good idea and promptly complied. Hows the
Babes in The Wood" cord going, buddy?" he asked, as they had by now come quite a
distance. Drew held up the still-ample remains of the coil for him to see. At least, we can
still find our way back, Erb, even if the torches give out! Hansel and Gretel had the right
idea - `cept we wouldnt be able to feel DIa IumDs among all this sand and gravel!"
Errol began to develop an even greater respect for his companion from that point
onward. At least Drew wasnt lacking in either foresight, caution or guts - a neat combi-
nation of the ma]or qualities that they would probably need most when it came to the real
thing. He was glad of this opportunity for a dummy-run" even if it finally petered out to
zilch. They wouldnt be going into the IaI DusInss as total fumbling amateurs!
They continued onwards for a further hundred yards or so, but as they did so, they
noticed that the roof of the tunnel was gradually getting lower so that they were now
forced to stoop as they went deeper. The character of the tunnel had also changed. The
side-tunnels petered out and the tunnel walls became much smoother, as if they had been
scoured smooth by a powerful ]et of water. When they found themselves finally reduced
to proceeding upon all-fours, Drew called a halt.
Looks like were literally at the end of our rope", Erb, in every sense of the term!
!ve got about a couple of feet of the cord left, and from what ! can see up front, theres
no let up in this squeeze!" He sighed in exasperation. The only way we can get any
further is by dragging ourselves along on our stomachs. Dont really fancy that much, do
you, mate?" He leaned sideways as far as he could in order for Errol to see beyond him
down the rapidly constricting passageway. What do reckon? ! still have another coil of
cord here, and ! could tie it onto the end of this one, but the big problem is getting back
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if were flat on our bellies! !ts not easy trying to wriggle backward lying down!"
Errol bit his lip. How long are those coils of cord, Drew?" he asked.
Around two hundred meters." said Drew. Thats about six hundred and fifty-odd
feet in Uncle Sams good old measure! Or two hundred and eighteen yards if you can
imagine that better! Take your pick! !ts still quite a hell of a distance, whichever way you
measure it!"
Sure is!" Agreed Errol, But its zero compared to eight-hundred mIIs, buddy!
Nope! ! vote we go back while we still can! Naybe we could try the other branch of the
tunnel, what say?"
Drew grunted his agreement, and they began to crawl laboriously backwards, until
at last they reached a point where they could stand and turn around. !t was easier after
that and they soon arrived back at the original ]unction. Well, now!" said Drew. What
shall we do next? How much !Im have we got left, anyhow?" He glanced at his watch
and saw to his amazement that it was already nearly four in the afternoon. Blast it!" he
said. ! forgot we had such a late start!"
!t was then that he realized sm!nIng Is hed forgotten. The maII he was sup-
posed to have sent off to Professor Dinwiddie! `DuDI-amn I! aII1 he thought.
Errol was ]ust as concerned as Drew about this oversight. Well, ! guess thats it, old
buddy." he said. Well ]ust have to come back and check out the other passage another
day, at least weve kinda made some sort of a start, but were gonna have to think real
hard about what sort of equipment were gonna need for the IaI NacCoy!"
Drew was already way ahead of him
in worrying about that! One thing had swiftly become clear to him in the narrowing
squeeze of the passageway. They were going to need some sort of back-up when they
finally took the deep plunge! Two were obviously not enough to cope with any real
emergencies. But who else was there? Old Din-Dins wouldnt be up to the underground
bit, he was plainly too old and too out of condition.
Naybe some of their old !nternet egroup pals might be interested, but theyd have
to come from the States or England - or wherever - always providing that they were up /I
I!, of course! Or even s!III n !n N!, come to that!
! reckon were going to have to get ourselves a decent computer, Errol." He told his
friend as they rode unhurried back toward the homestead, We cant hog the kids PC or
therell be hell to pay - especially from young Charlie! Hes on it all the damn time!" He
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thought for a while. What say ! get Stan to run you into Longreach tomorrow and you can
pick one up for us, eh? !ll have to stay here and get on the blower to organize something
with the airlines for the Profs flight and such! Were goin to need a computer for all sorts
of other stuff as well - especially a!a! ! dunno about you, mate, but !ve already
forgotten half the bloody stuff ! learned at Uni!"
Errol nodded a little glumly Yep, ! guess that goes for me too, Drew! But lets not
forget well have old Din-Dins to help us out with that side of things, bro! After all isnt that
why we asked him out here in the first goddamn place?"
Drew grinned. Too right, old mate!" he said. ! `m ]ust hoping that the kids havent
got the computer tied up this evening so that ! can get that email written and off to
Edinburgh, tonight! Fair dinkum, Erb, ! could kick myself square up the backside for not
thinking of it this morning, before we went off down that blooming rabbit-hole!" He shook
his head sadly at his own thick-headedness.
Then, the roofs and treetops of the Glengarry homestead hove into view on the
horizon, and this brightened them up considerably. They spurred their mounts into a
swift gallop for the last couple of miles, and en]oyed the exhilaration of a friendly race for
home. Their horses seemed to en]oy it too, and bolted away at a cracking distance-
devouring pace. !t seemed like no time at all before they pulled up in the yard beside
the big iron barn, and dismounted.
As they did so, Stan and Jacky came ambling over to take over the unsaddling and
hosing down of the two horses. Errol gave Daisy a couple of pats on the shoulder and
murmured a few sweet nothings in her ear. She reciprocated by snuffling the side of his
head with her wet muzzle.
Stan was astonished to see this. B) G, Errol!" he laughed around the thin butt
of hand-rolled cigarette that seemed to be a permanent appendage upon his bottom lip,
Youve made a real bloody nI! with our Daisy, mate! She doesnt usually take so bloomin
kindly to strangers! She bit a lump out of Bobs arm only about a couple of months back
- an ns known her since she was a bloody /aI!"
Errol couldnt help smiling wryly to himself. Tn BI!I BI!1 he thought.
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As soon as they entered the house, (much to Joans surprise, as she had half ex-
pected them to come straggling home long after dark and expect her to cook them a
belated meal), Drew made a beeline for Charlies computer. Fortunately, Charlie was
outside somewhere with Bob pursuing his training as a ]ackaroo. But the computer was
switched on and the monitor screen was freewheeling a pair of graphic trapezoids that
constantly changed colour and configuration as they swirled around each other.
He immediately clicked the mouse to the desktop, which was packed almost solid
with Charlies chosen icons, then he clicked on 1n!In! xpIII, and within seconds
had located a trusted Brisbane travel agency to check out the Qantas or British Airways
flights from the UK for availability of a return business-class seat over the next week or so.
!n very quick time, he had arranged two tentative optional bookings for Professor Dinn-
widdie - including the shuttle-flight from Edinburgh - for seven and twenty-one days later
respectively, direct to Brisbane. This was simply because he had no idea how much time
the Prof would need to get his passport and visa sorted.
After submitting his credit-card details, the booking-agency promised to email him
the full flight-details for both options (!n appIIaDI n ! D n/IIm D) !n passn-
gI} within half an hour. Having thus initiated the exercise, there was no point in begin-
ning to compose the email to the Professor till he had all the facts to hand. Drew hurriedly
scribbled a large block-lettered note asking Charlie n! to hog the computer until hed
finished his business and taped it to the monitor screen.. He then hurried away and
grabbed a quick shower, whilst he had the time to spare.
Just as he finished his shower, and was drying himself off, Joan knocked on the
bathroom door to ask if he would like an early tea time meal. She was doing Errol eggs
and chips, if he was interested? That sounded fine to Drew, whose culinary tastes were
of the simplest imaginable. Errol had often remarked that it must have been due to his
peasant-upbringing", but Drew was ]ust one of those people who set no store by making
the ingestion of food into an art form. !t was probably in his genes, as his father had been
the same - or wuI nav Dn had not been such a big-shot in the business world, and
thereby mpII to do a lot of sIaI dining in flash and often exotic gourmet restau-
rants.
As he pulled on his clothes in his bedroom, Drew recalled his fathers remarks on the
day hed died, about eating pig-poo", and he smiled faintly to himself. His Scottish
forebears must have existed entirely upon gritty salted porridge and boiled mutton - with
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the occasional naggIs thrown in, of course!
Errol was already halfway through his meal of egg and chips, when Drew sat down
beside him. Hmmm1 Yum1 mumbled Errol appreciatively. Theres a lot to be said for
plain, wholesome food, buddy! This is IIIus!" Drew grinned at him, Yeah! ! know,
mate! Thats why the Colonel" and NacDonalds" struck it so rich in the States! You
Yanksll eat any bloody thing as long as its got French Fries with it!" He had to smile at his
own hypocrisy. Errol had always pulled Drews leg for being so addicted to fast take-away
foods during their Uni days in Edinburgh. Hed even suggested that the Scots should start
up a chain of InDuIgnI Take-Away outlets. Perhaps with HaggIs an FInn FIIs
as a special gourmet-delight, and Oa!maI PIIIg an 1 Iam as the main sweet"
to follow! Drew would have been their first and principal customer!
Neanwhile, Joan had placed a great plate of fried eggs and chips in front of Drew,
who was, by this time, almost ravenous. He tucked in with a vengeance and ]ust allowed
Errols additional fast-food suggestions, such as 5!n gg an FInn FIIs and gg-
InDuIgnIs to fly harmlessly over his head. Because he tucked in so voraciously and
silently, he finished his own meal well before Errol, and thus won the bonus award of an
extra helping of leftover chips! His hunger now sated, Drew excused himself and went
back to the computer.
True to their promise, the travel-agency had sent him the emailed flight schedule for
Professor Charles. A. Dinwiddie, care of the Science Faculty, Edinburgh University, Scot-
land, UK. Drew knew only too well that the A" stood for Archibald". Theyd often ]oked
about it as students. When the Professor was absent for any reason - a very IaI event -
they had sung a parody of a famous Scottish song of the 17+5 Rebellion, that began with
BaI) AInIs n awa. and ended Ma) n n m DaK agaIn1
However, he now had all the needed flight-numbers, dates, and departure and
arrival times, so he started on the all-important email message. Errol ]oined him as he
was typing feverishly away, trying desperately to keep it short and sweet. But it was
difficult to explain all that they had in mind in a mere couple of pages. Finally, after some
helpful editing suggestions from Errol, he managed to get it all down to seven pages.
Then after a very careful scrutiny of a printout copy and a few spelling corrections, he
pressed the Send" button. Now," he said, leaning back on the computer stool, hands
behind his head, all weve got to do is blooming waI!!" Just then young Charlie came in,
and eyed the pair sitting at his computer. But instead of whining about their unauthorized
use of same, he surprised them both by displaying keen interest in what they were up to.
Errol told him the basic details of their quest.
After digesting this, Charlie said brightly Hey! You two! Have you checked out the
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Undara Lava Tubes sites yet?" and without waiting for an answer he clicked the Favorites"
button, scrolled down to an entry, and a couple of clicks of the mouse later, he had the
famous tourist attractions colorful web-page up on the screen. Oddly, although both of
them knew something about lava-tubes, especially those of the Hawaiian volcanoes, Nauna
Ulu and Kilauea, they hadnt really thought about this local one at Undara, about 100 miles
inland from the North Queensland coastal town of Cardwell. The site was well illustrated
with intriguing color-pictures and some quite useful text information. Drew and Errol were
quite rapt in the place, although they both realized that a lava-tube could, at best, really
be only of superficial interest from a subterranean-exploration viewpoint.
Nevertheless, Errol was especially keen to see this geological wonder. Wowee!" he
cried. That cant be far from here, buddy! Why dont we get the plane out tomorrow and
mosey on over there for an eyeful, Drew! Anyone got a map of this region?" Charlie
again came to the rescue by producing an Australian school atlas, and they soon discov-
ered that Undara was ]ust about two hundred miles north-north-west of the Glengarry
station. Hey, about that!" grinned an elated Errol, Only an hours hop away! Goddamn
it, Drew, this ! g!!a see! What say, Ma!! Are we on for tomorrow? And !m warning
you, buddy - if you say N, !m going without you anyway!" Drew could hardly refuse
such a II uI and although hed been looking forward to a further exploration of
that other tunnel under the outcrop, he agreed without argument. H)1 Hang n1
chimed in young Charlie, with some indignation. What about m, you blokes? Cant !
come, too? ! mean, it was m that told you about the place, wasnt it, so its only
bloominfair!" Drew looked at Errol and held out his hands in a long-suffering gesture of
helpless despair. Errol ]ust grinned and nodded happily, so Drew told Charlie he could
come with them as long as his Num and Dad said it was OK. Charlie raced out of the room
with a loud yell of YIpp1 and a huge grin across his freckled face.
Say! Young Chas is a pretty smart operator!" opined Errol. He could be useful to
us, Drew! Hes pretty slick on the draw, computer-wise, so he could save us heaps of
hassle in digging info out of the Net!"
Drew immediately saw the sense in this. Okay, Erb! !ll go along with that, ]ust as
long as he doesnt make a real paIn of himself! You dont know the cunning young ratbag
like ! do! Next thing hell want to come with us on the blooming expedition! !ll let )u
imagine that scenario for yourself!"
Ahh, youre too hard on the poor kid, Drew!" replied Errol. Anyhow," he went on,
changing the sub]ect, What time dyou reckon we should set off tomorrow? Would sunup
be too early, dyou think? !td give us a lot more time to have a scout around the place!
Guess we could get Joan to make us up some sandwiches and a flask of ]ava for our
5aKup or whatever you call it! And maybe she might even make enough for our lunch,
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too - if ! ask her nicely, eh?"
5moRo1 Drew corrected him. And ! think well find they probably have some sort
of eating-place on site, so no need for us to bother Joan! Yair! ! reckon the earlier we get
started the better - always providing we n! sleep-in again!"
Just at that ]uncture, Bob walked in with young Charlie. Hey!" he cried, scowling in
mock outrage. Whats all this about takin this young bludger off sight-seein when he
should be doin his chores?" he winked conspiratorially at Drew and Errol. Cant say as !
much like the idea of him goin skivin off when theres bloody work to be done around the
place - an his lessons to learn, too.." He winked again, as Charlies bottom lip began to
protrude in disappointment. Then he ruffled Charlies ginger hair playfully with a leathery
work-toughened hand. Still, like me old Dad used to say, AII WIK an N PIa).1 Oh,
hell! ! reckon ! can manage without him for n day!" Charlies face lit up like a
Christmas tree. Gee! TnanKs, Dad! Thanks a I!!"
Dont thank m!" said Bob. Thank Errol an Drew for !aKIn you! An, dont you go
makin a bloody nuisance of yerself, either! Dyou hear me, son?" Then, with a cheery
grin at the others, he turned on his heel and left them all to it. Charlie clapped is hands
]oyfully. PIppI1 You little Dau!)1 he yelled.
!t was then that Drew told Charlie hed have to work off the favor by helping him to
fix up the new computer when it arrived. !tll probably be here by the time we get back
tomorrow arvo," he said, so n! forget!" But Charlie was elated at the news, especially
when he heard Drews new computer was fifty times more powerful than his own two-year
old but already outmoded model. And when Drew told him they would need his help in
searching the Net for information, his ]oy knew no bounds Such net-searching work was
right up his alley.
Then, as an earnest of his good faith for their kindness, the happy youngster set
about downloading the entire Undara" website for them, in full color on nice white high-
resolution paper.
Around ten that night, as Drew and Errol were once more sitting in Drews room
studying all the printed-out Undara information and discussing the possibilities of making
an entry into the earth via some volcanic vent, young Charlie tapped quietly on their door
and slipped in, glancing furtively over his shoulder in case Joan saw him. !n his hand was
an email printout.
!t was from their dear old professor in Edinburgh, to tell them that he was greatly
intrigued by their proposed adventure into the subterranean realms of deepest Australia,
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and would be only too delighted and honored to accept their fine and extremely generous
offer of an airline trip to that /aII w Ian which he gathered from the guidebooks he
had consulted must be Iamm ! vI/IwIng wI!n !n snan!s / nIs wn un-
!I)mn. And a holiday on a real live Queensland cattle station would be the icing on a
wonderful surprise Birthday Cake!
He would be happy to take the earliest of the two optional flights, since he had, in a
sudden fit of nostalgia, made arrangements only six months earlier to visit his ailing elder
and only sister, in Nova Scotia. Hed made all the requisite passport and visa arrange-
ments as well as booking a flight to Halifax, in Canada, only to learn a few days later that
she had died quite unexpectedly. Or, as he poetically put it, paI! sunI) Du!
pa/uII) /Im !nIs !IIsm VaI / TaIs - of a severe stroke at the grand age of fifty-
eight years! !t had all come as quite a blow to him.
Poor old sod," murmured Drew, then continued perusing the four-page email.
However, after a brief chat with the Dean that very morning, the professor had
forwarded his still-current passport to Australia House for the appropriate visa to be at-
tached for a minimum stay of six months. Upon studying the flight-times for the earlier
trip, hed discovered that, by some stroke of cunning genius, Andrew had cleverly timed
his landing in Brisbane to coincide exactly with his fiftieth birthday! How Andrew had
discovered his birth date he had no idea, but doubtless this would be revealed in due
course. But it was a magnificent gesture that he would never forget!
Well! How lucky could a blooming man get!" cried Drew in astonishment. ! hadnt
even the foggiest idea wnn the dear old codgers birthday was! Or even nw I he
actually was! ! was ]ust gussIng when ! told Num he was around fifty!"
Dinwiddie then rambled on a little about the difficulty of packing a suitable wardrobe
of clothing, as he understood it could become rather warmish at times in Queensland and
he certainly had no desire to find himself suffocating in tweeds and a deerstalker in the
middle of a heat wave.
What the hells a Is!aIKI?" asked Errol, in a puzzled tone. He was rewarded by
a astonished stare from Drew. Didnt you ever watch an) of those old 5nIIK HIms
movies with Basil Rathbone, mate? Drew said, with disbelief. You mus! have! That
victorian sleuth who went around with his old doctor pal with the white `tash! Imn-
!aI) m) aI Wa!sn1 and all that ]azz - remember?"
Errols eyes suddenly lit up, as if seeing an angelic revelation. Oh, )an! Now !
ImmDI1 Used to watch him on Tv when ! was a kid! British guy with a big nose -
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always wore a kinda cape and funny headgear.. and always peeking through a magnify-
ing-glass? That the guy?"
Tna!s the bloke!" laughed Drew, And his funny headgear was a Is!aIKI!"
* * *
By eight the next morning they were already halfway to Undara. Drew sat next to
Errol, and Charlie sat in one of the four passenger seats with his nose pressed hard against
the plexi-glass window gazing down upon the vast panorama of scenery below.
They had already passed over Hughenden and Errol had discovered that if they
followed the Kennedy Highway north, it would bring them right up to the site they sought.
The countryside below was much more thickly clad in gray-green than that which they
had left, and it was fairly elevated, too, as they were flying over the Great Dividing Range.
Here and there along the way, they passed over station homesteads with large
swatches of lighter yellow-green, and were flying sufficiently low to allow Charlie to see
the cattle ranging over the countryside, and the occasional station pickup ute trailing its
plume of red dust along a dirt road. He ]ust sat there quite entranced, saying how great
it was to see all the scenery from such a fantastic viewpoint. The youngster had only
been in a plane once before, but that time hed been seriously ill with a burst appendicitis
and hadnt been able, or inclined, to look out of the windows of the Flying Doctors Air
Ambulance as he was flown urgently to Longreach Base Hospital.
Drew was ]ust happy to sit back and survey the great stretches of savannah wood-
land, watching out for some sign of their ob]ective, and listening to Errol theorizing about
the alternative possibility of there being some kind of volcanic gas vents or fumaroles in
the district. Whilst he was dubious about finding any unblocked lava-vents leading down-
ward, he was convinced that there should be open fumaroles from which steam and
scalding water may have once issued from the depths. These are related closely to the
geysers and hot springs notably depicted in famous geothermal places like Yellowstone
National Park in Wyoming, USA or in Rotorua and other thermal regions in New Zealand.
He was convinced that if one could only find such a fumarole - a suitable large one and
preferably one from an extinct volcano, it might conceivably be their point of entry!
According to all the downloaded literature they had read last night, this region of
North Queensland had been a really volcanically active area some 190,000 years ago. This
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meant that the Undara volcano - or volcanoes, (it seemed there had been several craters
fairly close together at Undara) might be relatively young enough not to have eroded
away so completely as to have collapsed all their vents and tubes. The fact that the lava-
tubes were still fairly intact.
The various web-pages Charlie had downloaded seemed to indicate that there were
still over eighty sections of the longest tube - which was said to be the longest in the
world, at around a hundred miles or one hundred and sixty kilometres!
However, even better still, the whole NcBride Province plateau near the top of the
Great Dividing Range boasted the existence of n Iss !nan JU spaIa! vIans within
an area that was only Ign!) I s mIIs In Iam!I, the oldest of which dated back three
million years! Surely they ought to be able to find sm means of ingress in such a
fantastically tectonic area!
Errol said that he felt more gut-certain than ever that this area would yield some-
thing up for them, than any of the others they had checked out on all the maps hed
brought with him. That weird MBII PIvIn ought surely to narrow their search area
down pretty dramatically, especially as they had an aircraft to help with the search! Errol
positively oozed confidence of success, and Drew soon found himself feeling equally opti-
mistic and enthusiastic.
By this time, only a little under an hour of leaving Glengarry, they were already
rapidly approaching their goal, and could distinctly see the cluster tree-carpeted bowls of
the Undara craters dead ahead. They were at ]ust the right altitude in relation to that of
the sun above the eastern horizon to get a near-perfect three-dimensional view of them.
!t was quite an impressive sight, particularly when they spotted the long hummocks of the
overgrown lava-tubes - broken here and there by clumps of bushier vegetation where the
roofs had collapsed. But the whole scene was much more extensive than they had imag-
ined from the data they had been studying. After circling around the surrounding area,
Drew spotted the landing-strip at some short distance away, along a dirt road that con-
nected it to a park-ranger station and tourist center. He buzzed low over the center, and
they saw a man in uniform emerge from the main structure and vigorously wave him over
toward the landing-strip.
By the time Errol gently touched the Cessna down in a neat three-point landing, a
four-wheel drive was already bouncing its way along the track toward them. After Errol
had parked the plane off to one edge of the landing-strip, and they had climbed out of the
aircraft, its large, friendly driver was already waiting to greet them.
Gday!" he said cheerily, with a big friendly grin. Hows it going, folks! Welcome to
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Undara volcanic National Park! Got any gear with you?" They shook their heads, and
Drew told him that theyd ]ust nipped up from Winton to let an overseas visitor" - here he
indicated Errol - have a bit of a gander at the lava-tubes".
Oh, right!" said the driver, breezily. ! think hell be in for a pleasant surprise, then!
!m one of the guides here. Anyhow, hop up into the car and !ll run you back to the
station, then you can sort yourselves out from there!"
They all clambering into the vehicle and, after a short drive, and a very brief chat
with the driver, soon found themselves approaching a small cluster of buildings.
Hey!" shouted young Charlie, pointing to what resembled a tall stack of huge blocks
of rock ]utting up some distance away above the shady trees. Theyve even built a vIw-
Ing pIa up there!"
Their guide-driver smiled at this. No, son," he said," thats an outcrop called Barkers
Knob, but it s comes in handy for keeping a fire-watch over the savannah bush land
around here. !t gets dry as tinder at this time of year and unless you could spot a fire right
at the outset, it could race right over the entire plateau like a - like a- "
Like a bush fire?" suggested Drew helpfully.
Yair!" said the savannah guide, with a grim face. Thered be nothin left but a
blackened waste for a hundred miles in any direction - not to mention the decimation of
all the local wildlife! Fires the big hazard in these savannah areas. "
The ranger station and tourist center was now in sight, and it was strange to see a
long line of an!Iqu IaIIwa) aIIIags standing among the trees! Soon they stopped
outside the main building. They got out and their driver took them inside to meet one of
the officials who helped in supervising the tourist center. She turned out to be a very
pleasant, personable woman, and Drew became rather tongue-tied as he tried to explain
their mission. Errol came to his aid using all the charm he could muster, which was fairly
formidable. He quickly outlined the idea they were pursuing, but without mentioning
anything about the inner earth theory. He told her that he had flown over from Detroit
specifically to ]oin his fellow geophysicist in making an in-depth study of the craters, lava-
tubes and any fumaroles or vents there might be.
They were interested, he told her, in seeking some way to get beneath the level of
the actual tubes themselves so they could later gain permission to investigate any hollow
chambers that the principal volcano may have left behind. Fumaroles were the most
likely bet in this regard, since they might not have been blocked with solidified lava.
Would it therefore be possible for them to take a look around the tubes and the perimeters
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of the ancient calderas to see if such fumaroles still existed?
He hastened to add that they were both qualified geophysicists and that they had a
colleague Professor on his way over to ]oin them from Edinburgh University, in Scotland,
even as they spoke. They had scoured the whole of Australia for a site where such
fumaroles might exist, and had finally settled upon Undara. To whom would they have to
apply in order to carry out their research?
The lady-supervisor was suitably impressed by all this - as well as with Errol and
Drew - and said that she uI put them in touch with the National Parks Department in
Brisbane, if their pro]ect required any ma]or works involving drilling, excavating or any
suchlike heavy equipment. That sort of thing was frowned upon. However, if none was
needed and there was no likelihood of any damage to the local environment or interfer-
ence with the local tourist or park activities, things could be streamlined. They might be
able to come to some sort of arrangement that wouldnt require the inevitable red-tape
that such an official request might entail.
They both hastened to assure her that the immediate work could be done by them-
selves, since a simple vIsuaI assssmn! was all they sought, and if they found what they
were looking for, it would involve nothing more than a simple speleological operation. !n
short, little more than a spot of caving or pot-holing!
Their pleasant hostess was at once won over. !n that case, she suggested, why
didnt she get someone to take them around some of the park area and the lava-tubes on
a sight-seeing tour so that they could get the feel of the place? She said the parks busy
season hadnt yet begun, and one of the guides would be quite happy to show them
around. Drew hastened to assure her that they would be glad to pay any appropriate
tour-fees, uDI, if necessary - for such a privilege! The lady supervisor said that
perhaps a contribution to the National Parks and Wildlife Fund would be very welcome and
that she would organize a tour for them forthwith. After Errol had written out a generous
cheque, she suggested they might like some refreshment while they waited? They wel-
comed this idea, since it was close to Smoko Time". They were soon seated round a
picnic bench under the shady trees en]oying coffee and sandwiches and saw that the rail-
carriages had been converted into neat accommodation units and a dining car!. The
scenery was magnificent at this hour of the morning, with the sun still low in the sky and
the area almost empty.
!t was as they were thus absorbed in their snack and contemplating the scene
outside, that a man in dark-green shorts and shirt with shoulder-patches, and wearing a
pale fawn, broad-brimmed hat came clumping up to their table in heavy bush boots and
ankle-gaiters.
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Hi, fellers!" said he. You the scientist blokes who want to take a look around?"
They nodded and Drew introduced himself, and his two companions. He introduced him-
self as Leo, and said hed been asked to take them wherever they wanted to go around
the Undara site. !f they were ready, hed be glad to get started as they had some territory
to cover. Tell you what!" he said, as they headed for the exit, You picked a fine day for it,
fellers! Shes a real stinker today, all right!"
!t was only then that they realized how hot the day was already becoming. The
tropical temperature had already risen considerably since theyd arrived and after the cool
early morning atmosphere they had first encountered, the air now enveloped them -
especially poor Errol - in a moist blanket of stifling, muggy heat. They accompanied Leo
outside to where his four-wheel drive stood waiting. Nercifully, his vehicle was air-
conditioned, so much of their travelling between points of interest would be done in
comfort. However, Leo assured them that it was nice and cool down in the tunnels so they
wouldnt have to cop too much of the unusually humid heat.
As they clambered into his vehicle, Leo grinned at Errol, whose pink visage was
already glistening with dribbling perspiration. Youd be the American bloke, eh? Dont
worry, mate! Youll soon get used to it! We aII have to out here! !ts amazing how quick
you can ad]ust when you nav to! Had a bunch of Scandinavians visiting the park last
week, straight out from Sweden, and they thought they were going to melt clean away!
But by the time they got back from their tour, they decided to stay over another day! !ts
not aIwa)s this muggy, by the way - were 2,500 feet up here! So there you go! And here
w go, too!" he added, putting the vehicle in gear, and heading off among the trees. Just
sit back and en]oy the trip, fellers!"
Then he launched into what was clearly an often-repeated history of the lava-tubes
and the volcano that had caused them. And despite their having already read much about
the region and its amazing features from the Web pages, they were happy to hear it all
repeated in detail by this highly-experienced savannah guide, whose colourful description
made it all come to life before their eyes. As Leo talked, Drew and Errol glanced at each
other. They both felt the same sense of deep inner conviction that this IaII) was going to
be !n Starting-Point of something really big for them! Leo was an excellent exponent of
his sub]ect, and they were soon engrossed in listening to his potted travelogue - not so
much in its present-day surroundings - but far back in ancient time.
First off," said Leo, "let me explain to you that these lava-tubes here at Undara were
created by a giant volcano when it erupted around 190 million years back. This whole
area is called the MBII VIanI PIvIn, and it contains the craters of about a hundred
and sixty volcanoes altogether, most of them lying within an area of roughly eighty miles
across! Just imagine !na!, if you can! WaII-!-waII vIans1 The actual tubes that !m
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going to show you, were caused by the molten lava flowing down a system of ancient dry
riverbeds. The upper outer layers of the lava cooled and crusted over, but the white-hot
molten magma being pumped out from the volcano ]ust kept on flowing along merrily
underneath the solidified crust, travelling further and further along the riverbeds away
from the main crater.
When the eruption of the volcano finally slowed down and stopped, and all the
residual lava had draining out through the tubes, it left them like a lot of hollow tunnels,
which soon hardened into solid rock."
Here Drew interrupted him. How come the lava still carried on flowing out when
the volcano slowed down to a stop? Surely it would all have ]ust cooled down and bunged
the tubes up?" He tipped a quick wink at Errol as he asked this. Being geophysics
graduates, they aIIa) Knw why, but Drew was merely checking out their ranger-guides
knowledge of his sub]ect.
But Leo wasnt put off his stroke for a second by this seemingly curly question.
Good point!" he grinned. Actually, the reasons fairly simple. You see, the walls and
roofs of the tubes really formed an excellent thermal insulation, so because of this, the
lava that was flowing through them was able to retain its heat and fluidity a great deal
longer than ordinary suI/a lava could. Because of this, lava flowing inside these tubes
could be carried for pretty long distances. For example the last active Undara volcano had
one tube that ran for a hundred miles, or one-sixty kilometres, following an old creek-bed
northwest, halfway towards the Gulf of Carpentaria!"
He grinned round at them proudly. !ts actually the longest in the world! Leaves
those Hawaiian volcanoes for dead! The longest Nauna Ulu lava-tube only reached seven
miles long in 197+!"
Neanwhile the vehicle was bouncing along a well-worn track toward a raised up
meandering, twisty ridge of hummock land that protruded from the savannah bushland.
Leo pointed toward it. Were coming to part of the main tube now!" he added, before
continuing with his saga.
The geologists reckon that, at its peak period, Undara pumped out about 1500 to
1600 square kilometres of lava - thats about 20-odd DIIIIn cubic metres of the stuff! !t
was going at a rate sufficient to fill 1500 big petrol-tankers a minute! Or so they reckon,
anyhow! Funny thing is that even the Aborigines seemed to understand about volca-
noes, and that this had been quite a decent sized one - even though they probably never
saw one erupt. They must have followed this tube were ]ust coming to for all its length.
Hw w Knw7 Because the name UnaIa in Aboriginal lingo means A vI) Ing
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wa)! How about that, eh?" His passengers made suitably impressed noises at this
revelation.
By this time, they had reached a point where part of the long Dotted-Line" of
snakelike, upraised and sporadically well-vegetated ground had obviously collapsed some-
where in the distant past, and afforded them a view into its half-subterranean, dark and
cavernous interior. Leo stopped the car and opened the door, permitting an oven like blast
of humid hot air to flood into the vehicle. Lets go down and have a look inside!" he said.
And dont forget youre in the tropics now, so pu! )uI na!s n! Dont want anybody
coming down with blooming sunstroke, do we?"
Then, after glancing down to check that they all had decent boots on, he reached
over into the back and produced four large flashlights. ! know it sounds a bit daft out
here in the blinding sunshine" he said," but were really going to n these shortly!
Now, follow me - and for Petes Sake, !Ia aI/uII)! We dont want to be sending for the
Flying Doctor", do we?"
He turning around then and led the three visitors along a well-trodden, stepped
path which took them down across the face of the cave-in.
Though they had known roughly what to expect from the pictures theyd seen on
computer printouts from the various Undara sites, it was nevertheless quite an astonishing
surprise when they saw the sheer size of the actual tube. The ceiling seemed to be at
least thirty or forty feet high, whilst the width was something close to sixty or more feet.
Drew tried to imagine this vast tube filled with molten lava rushing along at perhaps a
]ogging speed. He imagined himself running ahead of such a molochian flow along an
ancient riverbed. !t didnt even bear thinking about!
What if the river had been full of water and primitive life-forms as the molten fore-
front of the flow seethed and boiled its relentless way along! God! !t must have been Hell
on earth for the dinosaurs back in the early Jurassic, when all these volcanoes began
erupting from the Earths skin, and pouring forth their lava like white-hot pus! He had
seen volcanoes, such as Etna and Stromboli, steaming and smoking, from the air during a
weeks trip to the Nediterranean one summer with Errol, but hed never witnessed an
actual eruption. And together they had visited the ruins of Pompeii under vesuvius loom-
ing shadow.
All the Tv news shots hed seen of volcanoes in full eruption flashed across his mind
as he though on these things. He silently thanked Providence that hed been born long
after such events had been commonplace all over the Earth.
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However, as he thought on these things, he realized that Leo was now holding forth
about the tubes and their wild life. He re]oined the others as they ambled along, flashing
their powerful torch-beams about the walls and roof along the stretch of tunnel towards
its other collapsed end. !t was wonderfully cool here in the gloom of the tube, and a
strong draught of air kept it well ventilated. !t was perhaps as well since the floor of the
cavern was covered with bat-guano that gave off the strong, pungent stench of ammonia.
Their guide then pointed out with his torch-beam the huge colonies of horseshoe
and bentwing bats that clung to its high ceilings like black patches of squirming life, and
told them of the life-cycle that existed in the lava-tubes. He was talking about the abun-
dant insect-life of and around the tubes upon which the bats lived . He also spoke about
the many opportunistic pythons which hung draped around the leafy vines that festooned
the entrances, and caught many of the little bats on the wing as they flew out in huge
flocks upon their nightly forays.
But Drew wasnt especially interested in the biology of the caverns, so he quietly
edged away again and flashed his torch all around the lower edges of the tube walls.
There were many small tunnels and clefts, caused either by runoff storm-water drainage
or the simple settlement and thermal expansion and contraction of the rock, down the
millennia. He saw that the floor of the cavern-tube - where it wasnt buried in bat guano
and general blown-in dirt and detritus - consisted largely of smooth, solidified lava. Obvi-
ously it was the top of the residual lava which hadnt entirely cleared the lava-tube before
finally cooling and setting solid!
However, from what little he could see during this very superficial sweep with his
torch, there were no apparent signs of actual holes in it, which might permit them to get
down beneath the tube.
!n general, Drew felt pretty disappointed that the tubes themselves - no matter how
spectacular - would most likely n! prove to be of much assistance to them. Neverthe-
less, they would have to follow through with the entire tour now, even if only to keep in
the good books of the management!
!t looked very much as though their only IaI chance of getting inside the volcano
proper was going to be by means of their original fumarole idea!
As he re]oined the others, where Leo was still holding forth, he noticed Errols question-
ing glance in his direction. He shook his head almost imperceptibly , and Errol gave a
despairing upward roll of his eyes, and a shrug of his shoulders to signify that he under-
stood Drew had drawn a giant blank. The answer obviously In! lie within the Iava-
!uDs themselves!
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The rest of the abbreviated tour was basically a continuation of what theyd seen
before but with lots of interesting variations upon the first section of tube they had visited.
There had been a great many cave-ins along its enormous length - or the portions that
were within the rangers ambit. !t would obviously be out of the question, with the best
will in the world, to see the entirety of its 100 mile-length, and would certain be of no
earthly use to their purpose to do so. The first few sections showed them clearly enough
that the tubes, whilst a geological wonder, and one that would no doubt greatly enrapture
Professor Dinwiddie, were essentially a more of a spectacular tourist attraction rather than
a means of gaining entry into the subterranean labyrinth they both Knw must lie beneath
their feet. However, they en]oyed the tour gratefully, and made many strange new
discoveries that might be of use to them if and when they did actually effect into the
underworld proper.
There were many strange insects and biological curiosities that they had never en-
countered before in any of their periodical field-trips either in Britain or on the Continent
during their University years, and it slowly began to impinge upon their consciousness
that they might be in for many even more bizarre encounters once they entered the
underworld beneath. One of the things they had neglected to consider was the simple
basic necessity of finding breathable air! Even in some of these lava-tubes they encoun-
tered regions of bad air" where carbon dioxide was concentrated to levels almost 200
percent of that considered normal. And yet even in such a place as this where it would
have been impossible to strike a match, because of the lack of oxygen, there was a
superabundance of thriving cave-life. Particularly of strange insects that had somehow
adapted to a much-lowered oxygen level.
!sopods and scutigerids abounded, together with others that even Les could not
give a handle to! However, this situation regarding breathable air, gave them both furi-
ously to think.
Would the lower underworld have any breathable air at all? Drew wondered. What
if the atmosphere was largely composed of mephitic gases like hydrogen sulfide and
hydrogen chloride, or the whole range of poisonous hydrocarbon gases, that are found in
deep oil-wells? Perhaps they would need to take oxygen-cylinders and underwater
breathing apparatus! These would create a terrible burden and would seriously impede
and prohibit their progress in so many areas that the whole pro]ect might have to be
either knocked on the head completely, or require some very seriously reconsideration!
Drew wished to high Heaven that he had paid a lot more attention during his classes
on chemistry and gases. However he knew enough about the sub]ect for him to master
deep cave-diving using breathing-apparatus. So he couldnt imagine what more he needed
to understand than this. However, in the words of Nrs. Beetons famous Cookery Book
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recipe for Jugged Hare:- FIIs!, Ca!n YuI HaI1. This would have to be their watchword
for the moment. Before they started to indulge in too many Wna! 1/s and other
counterproductive thoughts, the first thing they had to ascertain was if there really was
any way of ingress to the subterranean by means of fumaroles! Which meant they must
first find a suitable defunct and negotiable fumarole - whether here or at some other
volcanic site!
By midday, after they had visited three or four sections of the lava-tubes, Leo de-
clared that it was time they headed back to the guide Station for some tucker." They
were all famished after all the unusual exercise of clambering up and down steep foot-
paths and in some cases, ladders, so they agreed readily. As they headed toward the
four-wheel drive, Errol grabbed Drews arm and pulled him back for a moment.
Listen, old buddy." He murmured quietly so Leo wouldnt hear. !nteresting though
these tubes are - and ! wouldnt have missed seeing em for worlds - ! somehow get the
feeling that were ]ust spinning our wheels looking down there for an entrance. ! guess we
gotta go search around on our own. Waddaya say, Drew?"
Drew nodded his head sadly. !ve had the same feeling myself, mate!" he said. But
how do we break it to Leo? ! mean the guys a decent sort of cove and weve learned a
lot from him in a hell of a hurry this morning, but we really need to go off and search for
fumaroles around the base of the volcano. ! dunno if hed understand? Wouldnt want to
hurt the poor blokes feelings though!"
Well we can always asK him, bro!" said Errol. He may know something about !nm,
too. After all, hes no slouch around volcanic stuff, is he? Look, buddy. Just leave it to me,
and !ll broach the sub]ect on the way back to the center. He might be able to bend the
rules a little since were here for scientific purposes. What say? We got nothing to lose.
They cant stop us going off on our own, but itd be a helluva lot easier if we had a vehicle
to run around in! ! dont believe ! can take much more of this goddamn sticky heat!
Okedoke?"
Drew grunted his approval. Seems to make sense, Errol. Naybe hell take more
notice of )u than me! Especially you being a YanK, an all! FamIIIaII!) DIs n-
!mp!1, old son, especially when it comes to vIsas !uIIs!s. Us locals usually come off
second-best!" He smiled a trifle sardonically.
Errol laughed at his cynical remark. !n that case, how dyou think hed handle old
DIn-DIns then, Drew! Poor guyd never be able to get a goddamn word in edgewise
with the Prof butting in every two seconds, and questioning everything he said!"
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Drew grinned fiendishly at the prospect. Naybe, if were vI) lucky today, mate,
we might have ringside seats at ]ust such a little scenario - in the very near future!"
Then they headed to the vehicle, where Leo was already sitting in the drivers seat,
impatiently tapping the steering-wheel with his fingers.
Are we right now?" he asked, as they took their seats in the vehicle. Dunno about
you people, but my guts are beginning to think my throats been cut!"
Then he slipped the gearshift into Drive" and they set of bouncing over the rough
terrain back toward the distant ranger-station.
With many misgivings, Errol leaned over the seat beside Leo and told him about
their desire to look around the base of the old Undara volcano for fumaroles or other likely
subterranean entrances rather than visit any more of the lava-tube sections.
Nuch to the surprise of both Errol and Drew, Leo welcomed the idea. He said it
would make a pleasant change from his usual routine duties, and that he knew of a few
likely spots they might find interesting. However, hed have to clear it with the Boss" first,
as any departure from the norm had to be noted down as a matter of record, in case of
any misadventure. We dont want to face any multi-million-buck insurance claims!" he
grinned. The Boss will probably want you to sign some sort of waiver-form to that effect.
Would that be OK with you?"
Both Errol and Drew readily agreed to this, so Leo clicked on his two-way intercom
and spoke to the supervisor, telling her of their wishes, at the same time steering adroitly
around the worst bumps and holes in the track with one hand. Her voice came back over
the speaker quite clearly. ! dont see any reason why we cant do that." she said. After
all, weve done it before occasionally for special geological groups, so its really no differ-
ent, Leo! !f they agree to sign a disclaimer to that effect, itll be fine! We may need to
think about the cost of the extra fuel and so on, but otherwise it should be all right! !ll
try and have some paperwork ready before you leave after lunch. See you soon. Over
and Out"
Leo thanked her then glanced across at Errol. Didya catch all that?" he asked.
Ys, L!" cried both Errol and Drew simultaneously. Great stuff! Thanks a I!,
buddy!" added Errol. Drew echoed the same sentiments and told Les emphatically that
his blood was worth bottling!
Feeling much relieved, and fortified by an impromptu steak barbecue lunch under
the shade of the trees around the ranger-station, they made their way to the office to fill
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out the necessary documentation. After this was completed, Drew asked the senior Guide
how theyd be placed if they found what they were looking for and wished to return
directly to the discovered site - perhaps even in a nIIp!I? She said that this would
be fine, ]ust so long as they advised her of their estimated time of arrival, as there were
frequent comings and goings of tourist aircraft to a nearby franchised tourist-center from
Cairns and Townsville, and the Barrier Reef islands, and she didnt want any aerial-colli-
sions to sully the reputation of the park!
As they went outside, Errol looked at Drew a little quizzically. Hey! Whats with all
the goddamn nppI business, buddy?" he asked with a wry smile. !snt my plane
good enough, or something, bro?"
Drew immediately pacified his friend. No, mate! !ts n! !na!! !t simply ]ust
occurred to me that if we hired a chopper, we wouldnt have to depend on bothering Leo
or any of the rangers, and we could fetch whatever climbing or other gear we needed
right to the spot, without them being any the wiser. What they dont know they wont
worry about, if you get my drift, Erb? We could come and go anytime without a lot of
hassle that way! 1II pay for the chopper, of course! ! know a guy in Longreach wholl hire
one to me. So what do you reckon, mate?"
Errol saw right away that Drew was absolutely right. !t wuI be helluva lot easier!
Why the heck hadnt n thought of that himself? Naybe he should have hired a chopper
in Brisbane instead of a plane! Good thinking, buddy!" he grinned. Now all we gotta do
is find this goddamn nI!"
The rest of the afternoon was spent in driving out over the savannah grassland
avoiding the sparse trees and shrubs, not to mention rocks and potholes, following the
perimeter of the volcanos base. They came upon a number of likely-looking, rock-choked
mini-craters, which they could only check out visually. Lacking any means of probing their
depths except by torchlight, they couldnt really tell if they were promising or not !t was
swiftly borne in upon them that they must go back to Glengarry and collect some proper
gear.
However, there was one largish hole, that Drew almost fell headlong into, which
bore the classic attributes of a /umaII. But it was roughly the size of a large gIav and
gaped blackly like one, too! Also they couldnt help noticing that the rocks that sur-
rounded the aperture had a yellowish tinge, which had evidently been almost eradicated
by the passage of aeons of time. Errol got down and sniffed at it, but if it had been sulfur,
the smell, like the yellowish deposition stains had been long been removed by the wind
and rain of millennia. Drew got down on his belly with one of the powerful torches, and
Errol lay across his legs so that he could lean well down inside the yawning grave like gap
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for a better view. The bright beam of light shone down a rocky shaft that clearly bore
some brighter yellow sulphurous marks as far as he could see, which amounted to only
around twenty or thirty feet, as the well or shaft, curved erratically from side to side like a
drunken chimney, and bent away completely out of sight at that depth. However, he felt
absolutely certain that it continued on downward. He backed out and let Errol take a look
for himself. Errol was quite ]ubilant when Drew and Leo finally hauled him up clear of the
hole.
What do you think, mate?" asked Drew, his face gleaming with sweat from his
exertion and excitement at the find. Dyou reckon this might ]ust be our portal?"
Errol looked back with an equally excited grin on his face. You know, old buddy, ! do
believe its pssIDI! But we wont really know for sure until we get around that goddamn
bend. What a goddamn pity we dont have any gear to try a descent!" He tossed a rock
into the hole and they heard it clattering away down into the blackness for several mo-
ments until the noise of its descent faded away to nothing. There was no telltale splash of
water. The hole must be very deep - and dry!
Here, young Charlie - who was about half the size of either of them - offered to shin
down and nav a gIg, but they wouldnt hear of it. Without a rope, one slip might take
him God knew how many yards down, and he might get ]ammed or wedged solid if he fell.
!t was no use. Theyd have to come back with some proper gear, like ropes and maybe a
block and tackle mounted on a tripod of wooden poles.
By now it was four-thirty in the afternoon, and they found themselves being
overtaken by the first hints of approaching sundown, a freshening breeze, and a diminu-
tion of the suns glare. But, although it made their work much more pleasantly cool, it also
made it increasingly difficult in terms of spotting any other apertures. The gradually length-
ening shadows seemed to produce thousands of imaginary dark depressions. Reluctantly
they accepted Leos advice to pack it in for the day and continue their examination of this
hole the next morning. Before they left, however, Errol removed a large red bandana,
which he had been wearing around his neck to soak up the perspiration. He climbed a
nearby tree and tied it firmly by the corners across the twigs and leaves of a high branch,
so it formed a bright red square.
X marks the spot, eh?" asked Drew. Pity we didnt bring one of Joans old bed-
sheets, mate - or maybe a bloody flag!" But Errol noticed that he didnt stipulate which
nationality - Australian or American.
Or some of that orange-tape" stuff the Council road-gangs use to fence round
their roadworks!" put in young Charlie brightly. Anit shines in the dark, too!"
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This smart suggestion was received enthusiastically by Drew and Errol.
Hey! Hey!" cried the latter enthusiastically. Thats a DIIIIIan! idea, kid!" Then he
looked at Drew. Ou! / !n mu!ns / DaDs an suKIIngs, eh, Drew?" he grinned.
Seriously, old buddy, dyou figure )u could get hold of some of that fluorescent tape?
Well probably need a whole heap of it before were through! !tll make a great trail-
marker down below - if we maK I! down , that is!" Drew made a mental note to ask
Bob if he knew anyone in the Shire Council Works Department.
By the time they arrived back at the airstrip, Drew had been doing a spot of deep
thinking. As they pulled up close to the Cessna, he turned to thank their Guide friend,
Leo, profusely and told him they wouldnt be back till maybe the day after tomorrow if not
later, as they had some things to sort out over the next day or so.
Leo pointed out to them that there was the very well-set-up Undara Tourist Center
nearby that offered full bed and board facilities if they wanted to stay over for a while, and
avail themselves of some real comfort, great tucker and fine entertainment. That whole
trainload of vIn!ag IaIIIa aIIIags theyd seen had been completely refurbished into
really beautiful private sleeping cabins with all mod cons! But, Drew reluctantly had to tell
him that since they wanted to keep their presence as private as possible, theyd prefer to
keep to themselves. Leo told them they didnt know what they were missing - but it was
entirely their own choice! Then he grinned and said in a mock !rish accent that n s
!nm agaIn wnn n saw !nm agaIn1
Then as they boarded the plane and Errol started the engine, he withdrew to stand
beside his four-wheel drive and watch them takeoff. He waved his hat at them as they
circled overhead then set a course southbound towards Winton, with the golden-orange
rays of the setting sun glinting off the aircrafts gleaming paint work.
As they cruised the three-quarter hour trip home to Glengarry, they were all im-
mensely impressed by the truly magnificent display Nature provided in a gloriously-col-
ored sunset. The sun was now a giant orange-red ball, sinking rapidly behind a gathering
bank of deep-mauve evening clouds, all limned with a beautiful edging of brilliant gold.
The whole scene was back dropped by a strip of daffodil yellow sky that gradually dark-
ened upward through tints of pale green and cerulean blue into the dark violet of the
oncoming night.
!t was almost dark by the time they buzzed the Glengarry homestead, circled it a
couple of times, then landed, with the aid of Bob, Stan and Jimmy waving torches at the
end of the airstrip and the planes own powerful landing-lights. As Errol taxied the Cessna
toward the hangar-shed, they saw Bob silhouetted against its wide, lighted doorway,
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waving his torch in welcome. They were Home!
The next morning, after a solid and sound nights sleep, Drew awoke to the sound of
birds greeting the sunrise. He felt enormously refreshed and was somewhat surprised to
find that it wasnt yet six oclock. He could faintly hear the sounds of crockery being
clattered around and the giggling of the Jackson children as they finished their breakfast
at the huge old kitchen table. He stretched his long, lean form luxuriously before flinging
back the bedcovers and pulling on his old ]eans and tee-shirt. Then he poking his sleep-
tousled head out of the open sash-window to draw in a few lungfuls of the fresh, crisp
early morning air. Deliciously chilled air that had been borne in a great arc up across
Central Australia by a strong southerly wind blowing straight off the Antarctic continent.
As he made his way to the bathroom, he met Errol ]ust emerging fresh out of the
shower. He positively shone with radiant well-being, and smelled strongly of shampoo
and aftershave. He greeted Drew cheerfully with a flashing white smile, and flicked at
him playfully with a damp towel.
Hey! Drew, feller! Howre you doing, buddy!" he cried happily. !ts sure a great
morning, isnt it! Gee! !m looking forward to my chow, today all right, after all that hard
work we put in yesterday! ! guess ! mustve lost ten-fifteen pounds in sweat, up there,
yesterday!"
Oh, yeah?" grinned Drew, And !ll bet London to a bloody brick that youll put it all
right back on again at the flaming breakfast table!" Then as he headed for the bathroom,
he yelled back over his shoulder. Hey! And leave some blooming tucker for me, you
greedy ratbag! !ll be there in about two minutes flat!"
Around the breakfast table, as they en]oyed another of Joans giant breakfasts - this
time one of steak and eggs, Drews favorite - he and Errol held a quick Council of War with
Bob. They had decided to brief Bob in detail on what they were doing since they would
need his help in implementing their plans, both for the days activities and for their great
(np/uI} underground adventure in the immediate future.
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Drew had planned on hiring a helicopter (nImaII) us /I agIIuI!uIaI spIa)Ing
puIpss} from a friend of Bobs. But, unfortunately, when Bob rang his mate about the
matter, it turned out that he was using the chopper for most of that week. At this, Errol
did a bit of quick thinking and then went off to use the phone. He was back in about ten
minutes looking very pleased with himself.
Well! Thats all fixed, guys!" he grinned smugly. "! got us a nppI! All ! have to
do his fly the Cessna back to Brisbane this morning, and theyll swap it for a four seater
helicopter! Naturally, !ll have to make a minor cash-ad]ustment and."
Which 1II bloody pay this time!" inter]ected Drew, not wishing Errol to end up
financing the whole exercise. So But" me no Buts", old mate!"
OK! OK! Have it )uI way, buddy!" said Errol, making smoothing gestures with his
hands. ! sure appreciate the offer! Anyhow, like ! was saying. !ll do the swap and then
fly the chopper back here, which should take around maybe five or six hours, with a bit of
luck, and..."
But once again Drew interrupted him. Hey! Hang on a tick, Erb! Why its going to
take you half a bloody day to get back? And, also, ! didnt know that you could fly
nppIs, too? Youre a real blooming surprise-package, mate!"
Errol flushed slightly at this. Well, ! guess ! gotta admit ! havent flown one in a
coons age," he confessed sheepishly," but theyre going to throw in a couple of hours
refresher-course" at the hire-outfit, so ! should be hunky-dory for the trip back! ! ]ust
figured that, from whats happened so far, we might as well dump the plane and get
ourselves something a bit handier!" then he looked at the others, a little quizzically. !
dont suppose either of )u guys can handle a chopper, can you?"
Drew shook his head rather shamefacedly, but Bob grinned broadly and held up a
victorious thumb. ! dont want to be regarded as a sKI!," said he, but ! have been
known to do the odd bit of wnIII)-DIIIng in me time!"
Here Joan ]oined in the conversation. yes, and !ll bet you s!III didnt do anything
about appI)Ing /I a IIns, Bob Jackson!" She then went on to tell them how hed once
been up with his mate - the crop-sprayer - who, in response to Bobs remark about it
IKIng IIK a pI / aK flying a helicopter and that An) na/wI! wn an IIv a
DI) aI snuI D aDI ! nanI n / !ns DaDIs1 - had at once suggested that
Bob might care to gIv I! a DI) Iasn, !nn1 Cash-money was wagered on the out-
come, and, after a few general basic instructions, to which Bob paid very close attention,
hed landed the chopper and theyd traded seats.
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Nuch to his mates astonishment, Bob had mastered the aircraft in a matter of a
half-hour with almost no boo-boos. The only real trouble arose when he tried to scare his
pal by looping the loop! The result had almost ended up tragically, but fortunately the
pilot was able to grab the controls in time - leaning across Bob to do so - and then hed
made Bob finish off the trial-flight by setting the helicopter down - with a n/!) !nump!
After that, Bob had been given another chance, which culminated in him taking a
series of impromptu lessons from his crop-spraying pal. Since then hed flown the ma-
chine solo a few times, and had even had a go at some regular crop-spraying himself
when his friend was sick in bed with a bout of Ross River Fever. Hed intended applying
for a pilots license, but somehow, hed never got round to it.
Errol and Drew stared at him with new eyes. Well! !ll be buggered!" said Drew in
wonderment. But Errol was quite keenly interested in Bobs surprise accomplishment.
! think we could use another pilot, Drew!" he grinned. What say we book him in for
his flying-test?"
But Bob wouldnt wear such a proposal for a second.
No way, Errol, mate!" he growled. Theyd fail me like a shot! Just like they did with
me IIvIs license back in 1977! Youll have to take me ]ust as ! am or bloody forget all
about it!"
Now they stared at him again, in even greater amazement. You mean youve been
driving around aII !ns )aIs," cried Drew incredulously, wI!nu! a drivers license?"
Yair, ! guess so." admitted Bob reluctantly. but the cops nvI pulled me over
n, so !ve never needed to show the bloody thing - which ! n! nav anyway!" He
stuck out his grizzled chin pugnaciously. And ! dont intend goin for any bloody Drivin
Test! So dont start bloody urgin me about !na!, either!"
Joan ]ust scowled at her obstinate husband, then she flounced off out of the room in
high dudgeon. Now you ]okersve got me right in the poo!" growled Bob.
A second later Joan popped her head around the door again. Oh, Drew!" she said
apologetically. ! forgot to tell you that your mpu!I arrived yesterday. ! didnt know
where you wanted it so ! told them to set it up in your room. The salesman said to tell you
its all ready to use!" Drew raced off like a shot, wondering how he could have missed
noticed a brand-new computer sitting in his bedroom. However, when he entered he saw
that Joan had covered it with a large tablecloth to keep off the dust.
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He switched on the power-point then pressed the power-button, and it immediately
began booting up the Windows program. As he was doing this, Errol and Bob followed
him in.
Wowee!" said Errol, delighted. All set up and raring to go, eh, buddy! Well, have
fun, Drew! !m heading off to Brisbane in a couple of ticks and Bobs coming along with
me for the flight! So well see you later this afternoon!" Then he added in a half-whisper,
AII DIng wII, / uIs1
!t wasnt until Drew heard the Cessnas engine revving up that it dawned on him
what Errols last remark might have inferred, and by the time he got out into the yard, the
plane was already airborne and banking away towards the east. 5nI!!" he growled to
himself. well probably see the Iasn-report on the six oclock news!"
He didnt dare give Joan even the faintest hint of his sense of foreboding about Errol
possibly allowing Bob to take a turn at the controls of the helicopter on their way home!
Better to say nothing, he thought, grimly! However, his mood soon changed and he had
several things to chase up. But first he wanted to see if there was any mail from the
Professor, as tomorrow - or was it !a)? - hed be ]ust about ready to board the Qantas
]et for Australia. He tried to figure out what time it would be in England about then, but
he wasnt sure about the daylight-saving - at I!nI end!
He found that the sales technician had left him his new email address written on a
strip of tape and attached to the monitor - since his was the same firm who would be
Drews web-server, at least pI !m. Then he realized, much to his annoyance, that
Dinwiddie would only have young CnaIIIs mail address, so he hastened away to find Joan
in order to clear it with her that he could use Charlies computer. Just how bloody frustrat-
ing an things get? He asked himself!
Joan was a bit surprised that he wanted to use Charlies computer now he had his
very own brand-new one. !t took Drew a minute or two more of frustrating talk to explain
to her about email addresses being different, from one user to another. She was also
surprised that Bob had gone off with Errol to Brisbane without telling her, too. She
thought it might be because he was annoyed with her for telling him off.
Drew had a mental wrestle with himself not to blurt out his own misgivings about
the ]aunt. However, he managed to keep his mouth shut and was soon checking Charlies
email !nbox". Happily, he found a new message awaiting him. Drew guessed it had
probably been sent from the University, prior to Did-Dins departure on the shuttle flight to
Heathrow in London. The Professor ]ust wished to inform Drew that hed finally got all his
paperwork sorted out, and had received back his passport from Australia House, contain-
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ing the requisite Entry visa to stay in Australia for a six month period, and, should he wish
to extend his stay he must be sure to apply to the Department of !mmigration for a new
visa. However, since he was only coming over for a couple of months or so, it was of no
concern to him.
Also he now had his Business Class airline tickets to hand, and would be hopefully
soon be presenting them at the Qantas check-in counter! Drew glanced up at the date on
the email and noted that it had been sent yesterday morning UK time.
For a horrible moment, panic gripped him, and he had visions of the professor
standing in the Brisbane !nternational Airport terminal gaping about himself in bewilder-
ment and growing rage at no one being there to receive him! Then he recalled that there
was a nine (or was it !n?) hour time-difference, and since the total ]ourney, including two
two-hour landings along the way, came to 28-29 hours altogether from the scheduled
flight-time from Heathrow - pIus say nine hours, to be safe - a total of 38 hours from his
email-time.. And, Oh, Yes! PLUS the hour and a half domestic Shuttle Flight, AND a six
hours wait in Heathrow before boarding the Qantas flight to Brisbane, it now came to
almost +5 hours. Thus the professor wouldnt be landing in Brisbane until early !mIIw
morning!
Then it struck him forcibly that Drew wouldnt be back until later that afternoon, and
wouldnt have the speedy Cssna to fly back to Brisbane the next day to pick up the
professor! What the bloody hell could he do now? !t was a mpI! s!u//-up1 What
snuI he do? Ring Errol at the private aircraft-hire office at Brisbane Airport? He quickly
scrabbled through the wad of papers relating to the Cessna-hire that theyd looked at
whilst discussing swapping over to the helicopter. He discovered among them the travel-
firms email concerning the Professors Qantas booking. !t was then that he noticed the
departure-date from London Heathrow.
A great feeling of mixed relief and utter foolishness swept over him. The Professor
wasnt due until a DI) WK from tomorrow! What a flaming idiot hed been, getting
himself all worked up and confused like that! But so much had happened over the past
two or three days, hed somehow lost all track of time! B) JIng1 He was so blooming
glad hed stumbled upon that bit of paper, otherwise hed have made a real prat of himself
to Errol and Bob by asking them to stay over in Brisbane and pick up the Professor tomor-
row!
A vision of them waiting at the terminal for the plane to arrive and then watching out
interminably for the Professor to finally emerge from Customs flashed across his mind,
and he realized that he had been simply trying to do too many things at once! `Better get
your finger out, old lad! Drew told himself, `before you IaII) stuff it all up! Better start
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writing some of these things down! He dug out a leather-bound executive diary some-
one had given him as a birthday present earlier in the year, and which hed never used. So
he at once entered the Professors actual arrival-time an a! on the appropriate page -
a! n wK nn!
!t was a logical step from there to considering what he had to do !a). He had to
contact the Council Works Department about borrowing or buying some rolls of their
orange Roadworks safety-tape. Then he needed to get in touch with a mate who ran a
diving-gear shop at Nackay about some Lycra wetsuits, facemasks and breathing appara-
tus, plus a number of compressed-air cylinders - Oh, yes! And a battery-operated air-
compressor, too, to refill them!
He and Errol, who were both experienced sporting divers, had discussed the possi-
bility that the fumarole or vent might contain foul air, CO2 (carbon dioxide), or even SO2
(sulfur dioxide gas) when they got lower down inside it. So they needed to be ready for
such an exigency. The Lycra suits would be a good protection against the tubes walls
possibly being covered in raw sulfur lower down, too. !n the event that they found the
fumarole-tube clear of such hazards, they ought to still take the gear along anyhow, in
case of submerged areas along the tubes and passages that they hoped to find below
ground. Drew still recalled his brief stint in the Boy Scouts at his Charters Towers board-
ing school. Particularly the dear old Baden Powell motto that had been constantly dinned
into his head at their meetings: B PIpaI1 Well, hed do his best to see that they
wI!
There was also the question of Ia!Ins to be considered. !f they were going to travel
for weeks, or even months underground they would need a heap of food supplies. The
best bet would obviously be to locate a supplier of Army C" Rations, so that they would
gain the maximum nourishment from a minimum of portable bulk. !t was even conceiv-
able that they might still have to supplement any such rations with
Any sort of edible subterranean game or other edible matter that dwelt under-
ground. Nushrooms would be a strong possibility, as would some of the crustacea and
cave-bugs theyd seen in the lava-tubes. But who knew what sort of other life they might
encounter down below? There might well be a lot of lizards and snakes, since many
reptiles lived in subterranean environments.
Hed actually eaten D!n once before, when Bob had pulled a rather unpleasant
trick on him, in his youth, prior to going overseas. Bob and Jimmy had taken him out
camping once to the furthest extremes of the large property, and had sent him off to
collect more sticks for the camp fire while they prepared the evening meal. When he got
back with a big armful of dried sticks, a delicious aroma of barbecued chicken struck his
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nostrils. Jimmy was the cook, and he had obviously brought some food with him. He sat
down hungrily whilst Bob barbecued the pieces of meat over the blazing fire. Then he
handed several pieces to Drew in a tin dixie. The chicken was delicious and Drew even
asked for more, which Bob was only too happy to serve him.
Finally, his hunger sated and wiping his greasy hands and mouth on a handkerchief,
Drew expressed his opinion that the Colonel" had better watch out if Jimmy could fix
chicken that good! Jimmy asked who was this Colonel" feller? When Drew told him
about the famous take-away fried chicken, Jimmy rolled over backwards laughing, his big
white teeth flashing gleefully in the firelight. Tna! not chicken, Nister Drew!" he grinned
widely. That be snaK-feller! And the other be san-ganna!" Drew had disbelieved
them both as they sat grinning at him across the leaping flames, until Jimmy held out both
the snakes and the goannas heads skewered upon sticks as proof. Bob was grinning too,
and asked him how hed liked his first taste of real, fair-bloody-dinkum outback tucker!
Hed felt totally nauseated for a few minutes and had wondered whether to stick his
fingers down his throat to make himself sick. However, hed thought better of it, not
wishing to appear a wimp in front of Bob, and despite his sense of mental revulsion, the
meal seemed to sit quite pleasantly in his stomach.
After that experience, Drew had realized that the native Aborigines ate all sorts of
dubious Bush Tucker" - even including crocodile meat and various large insects and their
larvae, such as wichetty-grubs, yet this fare had no ill-effects on them. Naybe hed
have a word with Bob about letting Jimmy take Errol on a Bush-Barbecue"! At least
theyd both be prepared then if the worst ever came to the worst!
His thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the phone, and a moment later,
Joan called out to him that Errol was on the line from Brisbane. He raced through and
took the proffered receiver from Joan. Gday, mate!" he said, Whats happening? No
problems, ! hope?"
Errols voice came back as clear as bell. No, everythings fine, buddy! We got the
hire-deal sorted out. They came up with a BII 2U J! PangI! Seats five including me,
and has a decent range - 702 kilometres - thats +36 miles, so we can do the round trip
from your place to Undara on one tankful of gas. Spose we uI always get an extra
tank fitted, but she should do it OK as is - waddaya reckon?"
What speed will she do?" asked Drew, knowing that it wouldnt compare to the
plane trip. 118 knots." Errol replied, then he paused for a moment to talk in a muffled
voice to someone else. Then he was back. Thats 136 miles an hour to you, buddy! Bit
slow compared to the Cessna, ! know, but then again, its not really sp were looking
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for, is it?" There was silence for a moment, then he added in a mock Western drawl.
Waal, pardner! Waddaya say? Do we clinch the deal, or what?"
Drew felt happy enough with what hed heard, so he told Errol hed be guided by
him, since he was going to fly it. He didnt as about the monthly rental as he had already
guessed it would be a! Ias! a thousand dollars a week. But Errol had one further question
for him that almost sent Drew into a fit of hysterical laughter.
Say, Drew." He began, somewhat hesitantly. Just one other point crossed my
mind, buddy! When was old Din-Dins" due to land here? !s it !mIIw or nx! wK?"
He sounded mildly worried. !m honestly darned if ! can recall! Bob claims its next
Thursday , but ! couldnt be sure! We wouldnt want to come all the way home and leave
the poor old guy stranded here, now would we?"
Drew couldnt resist it. Cripes, Errol! Youd forget your blooming na if it was
loose, mate! !ts nx! wK, you boofheaded numbskull!"
Errol laughed self-consciously at the other end. OK, Drew - ! guess you got me!
But ! was only checking to be one hundred percent sure! See you in around four hours
time - well need to make a couple of fuel stops en route! See ya, buddy!" Then he was
gone. Drew felt a little happier with himself after that, knowing that he wasnt the only
dumbbell on the team.
He had only ]ust hung up the phone when it rang again. He picked it up and was
surprised to hear the familiar voice of Doug Edwards, the general manager of Clanranald
Corporation, calling from Sydney. Gday, Drew!" said Doug. Hoped this might be a good
time to catch you in! We were having a bit of a yarn about you earlier on at the
management meeting, and wed like to know if youve come to any decisions yet regard-
ing the firm? !s this a good time to talk, or would you like us to come out and see you? !
could bring the Chief Accountant, Ray Fletcher, and the company lawyer out, if thats OK
with you? We really do need to get this sorted, Drew, so that we know whos who and
whats what! ! know you werent interested in taking over your old mans position, but we
have to appoint smn to the Chairmanship of the Board! What do you reckon?"
This question left Drew in rather a cleft stick. He had completely forgotten that his
father had been the main lynch-pin that held the firm together. The options were clear to
him. Either a new Chairman had to be promoted from within, or imported from without.
Common sense told him that somebody who already knew the ropes would be eminently
preferable to a rank outsider.
Doug?" he said. You recall how ! told you to carry on as if Dad was still running the
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show? Well, youve been with the firm for what.ten, eleven years, now? Well, in my
honest opinion ! think )u be the obvious man for the ]ob, yourself! How do you feel
about it, Doug? ! mean, !m sure the rest of the Board would agree with me on that! You
dont have any real opponents or enemies among them, do you?"
Doug said that he didnt have an) a! aII that he knew about, and that hed be greatly
honored to take up the post if Drew was sure he wanted him there. However, it would
have to be raised at the next Board Neeting, and it would help a hell of a lot if Drew could
be there to back him up. The next meeting was scheduled for next Wednesday if Drew
could make it.
Drew groaned inwardly, that would mean hed be in bloody Sydney ]ust when old
Din-Dins arrived! He thought hard for a moment. Then he came to a decision .
Look, Doug." he said. !m already committed for the latter part of next week, so !
dont think !ll be able to attend. But what ! wIII do is to email all of the board members
personally with my own recommendation for you as the new Chairman. How would that
grab you, Doug? What ! can say in person ! can say ]ust as well on paper, so ! dont see
any problem, do you? !f they need my signature on any documents afterwards, well, ]ust
send the Company Secretary up here with the lawyer and !ll sign them here. How would
that be? !n any case," he added, ! have a few legal and financial points to sort out re the
Company myself, so maybe thats the way to go. What do )u think?"
Doug said it sounded fine to him, and that hed go along with Drews suggestion.
By the way, Drew," he added, How are you fixed yourself, financially, in the interim? !
know that youll be getting all the settlement from your Dads personal estate shortly -
another two or three weeks should see !na! sorted - and that youll also get your share-
dividends paid into your account, as usual, of course. But if you need any cash-money to
tide you over in the interim, dont hesitate to give me a yell! Whatever you want, !m sure
! can get it for you, no problems.."
Such as wna!, for example?" Drew inter]ected.
Well, a new aI - a BNW? A Porsche?.You name it, Drew! Even a new house on
the coast, if you like..or maybe a Da!? Even a pIan! !ts up to you! !m sure we can
charge it all up to NacRanald Holdings! Were not exactly in the bloody Receivers hands,
you know!" He laughed, then paused expectantly.
Drew was heartily wishing now that Doug had phoned him yesterday. An kicking
himself. Still it wasnt too late.
Could you help me with a helicopter-hire arrangement, Doug?" he asked. Like a
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bloody fool, !ve hired one privately from Brisbane, and it never even occurred to me to
see if the firm could organize it for me!" Then he went on to give Doug a fairly sketchy
verbal outline of his and Errols expedition plans underground around Undara, but without
going into the Hollow Earth aspect of it all.
Hey!" laughed Doug cheerily on the other end of the line. Tna!s no problem at all
- after all, we aI a MInIng Corporation and )u are a qualified Gpn)sIIs!! Why the hell
didnt you contact me aIIII! Listen, Drew! !f your doing some geological exploration
around Undara, you might need a special permit, so leave it with me and !ll make a few
inquiries and contact a few people. Lot of interesting terrain up that neck of the woods
and weve been considering a couple of operations up there for a while now! So We
should be able to smooth the path a little for you up there. Anyhow ]ust leave it with me.
OK?"
Then he paused a moment before continuing. !n the meantime, Drew, !d be really
glad if you could send out those emails you mentioned to the Board Nembers. !ll send
you a list of them if you like, with their individual email addresses and a few personal
details about èm! Then you can do the rest, OK? Anyhow, !ll leave you alone now, Drew
- Oh, and let me have all the details regarding your chopper-hire, too, wont you, and !ll
get our Accounts people to transfer the rental over to us! Just drop them to me in an
email, OK? !ll need )uI email address, anyhow, for the Board business!" He little knew
that Drew was gnashing his teeth at his own lack of foresight about renting the helicopter.
He should have used his aIIg intelligence and thought of putting it through the Com-
pany, himself!
Well, ! wont take up any more of your time Drew." Doug concluded, Give Bob and
Joan my best, by the way, and tell them were still looking after them! Catch you later,
Drew, and thanks for everything! Cheers!" Then he rang off.
Joan smiled at Drew as he replaced the receiver. Nice chap that Doug, Drew! Your
Dad brought Doug with him the last couple of times he came up for a break, and hes been
very good to us. Your Dad was very kind to Bob and me, you know! All our ma]or bills are
paid through the company.. ! dont know how wed have managed if wed been left
entirely on our own! !s Doug coming up to see you? !ll have to get the place tidied up
and... "
No, No!" laughed Drew, ! think we can sort this out without you having a houseful
of executives to put up with! So dont fret yourself, Num!"
Drew had always called Joan Num" ever since his first day at the station home-
stead. And he still did when they were speaking privately. As far as he was concerned
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she was his Num, in everything but blood. Then he told her all about the expedition, and
what it entailed, and also that he wanted Doug to take over the Chairmanship of the
company, as he himself was content to simply remain a ma]or stockholder, and ]ust wanted
to pursue his own personal dreams.
She told him then that Alasdair had always known that it would be this way, and had
often wondered if he should have left a legally notarized decree that Doug should take his
place. However, he had I/! !n I pn for his son - ]ust on the off-chance that he
might have altered his views by the time he graduated.
Drew was only too relieved that he had, at least, now fulfilled his fathers aI!Ina!Iv
wish regarding Doug Edwards.
Before afternoon Smoko" time, Drew had already organized the Scuba gear, air-
tanks and compressors, and had dispatched Stan off to the Council roadworks yard to pick
up several yards of the Day-Glo" orange safety-tape netting. Stan was also bringing back
four or five powerful flashlights and a substantial supply of large, extra-heavy-duty batter-
ies for them. They had plenty of spares at the station but Drew wanted to be as self-
sufficient as possible.
He also managed to track down an ample stock of Army-surplus C-Ration" packs, at
a big Army-disposal store in Longreach, along with sundry other odds and ends of military
equipment, including three sleeping bags and other camping gear, as well as a couple of
folding shovels, four large hunting knives and a well-stocked First Aid kit. And, best of all,
four Walkie-Talkie"-type intercom radio phones!
!n addition, hed also ordered four capacious military rucksacks such as troops wore
into a battle-zone. Hed no idea if the professor would even consider accompanying them
underground, but he must have enough for three, at least, plus a spare. !f Din-Dins"
elected to remain above ground, Drew was sure that Stan or Jimmy would be only too
happy to ]oin them, even if only for the first leg" of their ]ourney. The only worry with
Stan was his stiff leg. Even if he was keen to ]oin them, would he be up to the challenge,
physically?
He found it hard going trying to think of all the possible gear they might need on
their great ]ourney, and realized that hed probably missed at least half of their ultimate
requirements. Probably the most obvious ones, too! 5un as anIs an ma!ns, /I
xampI1 And a mpass1 Errol would have to be consulted about the rest - his brain
was tiring rapidly after all the hassles and excitements of the day! He reminded himself
in his diary to watch out for Doug Edwards list of Board-members, too! He must see that,
that important matter was attended to, post-haste!
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By now hed more or less become totally wearied by all these chores, so he turned
his attention to the computer. !t had occurred to him only yesterday that it might be
worth a try to check out the old Hollow Earth egroups that he and Errol had belonged to
while in Edinburgh, so he quickly clicked his way through to the appropriate search-
engine and checked out a couple of the lists. Happily, and much to his surprise, when he
checked the Nembers lists, he discovered that he and Errol were s!III subscribed members
of the two groups they had ]oined some three years earlier!
Fortunately, theyd sensibly elected to use accommodation email-addresses on the
directory where the lists resided, and had done all their postings directly on the list-sites.
Of course, many pages of messages had flowed under the bridge, and many of their old
sparring-partners had dropped (I Dn Dump} out of the lists since his own last
message-posting. Happily, he found several of the I nans were still there - and still
arguing about their pet HE theories in the same old circular manner.
However, Drew was particularly pleased to spot a couple of young women on one of
these lists who had both been unusually keen contributors to some of the more serious
discussions. These two particular females - for the Hollow Earth theory attracted interest
from philosophers of both genders - had been among the few subscribers who had some-
how always managed to stay On TpI, instead of rambling wildly all over the discus-
sional landscape, IIK DI) BIwns Cws, as Bob might have put it his quaint Queen-
sland idiom!
On an impulse, he went to the posting-page and tapped in a message of greetings
on behalf of both himself and Errol, saying that they were both together now in the Land
of Oz Down Under, and in active, physical pursuit of a portal into the !nner Earth. He took
specific care to include the two girls email-pseudonyms (I/ gIIIs !n) s!III wI, In /a!1}
and asked them to drop Errol and himself a private line or two. This time, he changed his
and Errols email addresses to his own new one on their personal-detail pages and clicked
the box to receive daily Digests" of messages. Thered be no time to read them individu-
ally off the PC monitor-screen!
He then went of in search of more material about Undara, and managed to find
some very much updated scientific-interest pages about the region, beside the usual
tourist-oriented material. He delved deeper after fumaroles and lava-tubes, and located
some brand-new web-pages on them, which outdated much hed learned at University!
He printed these out for Errols benefit, as there was also some new material about the
great Nount Warning shield volcano region on the coastal border between New South
Wales and Southeast Queensland. The high plateaus surrounding the fifty-kilometer cra-
ter depression, which included the still only half-explored Lamington National Park rainfor-
est-]ungle, might well conceal a great many hidden vents and tunnels in its densely-
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wooded green depths!
On one particular website, he found a whole swathe of scientific material on the
sub]ect of lava-tubes and their associated phenomena. There was one large diagram that
especially caught his attention. !t showed a cross-section through a lava-tube and its
underlying foundations, and from this and the accompanying text, he learned that quite
often, certainly around the shield-volcanoes of Hawaii, there were all manner of base-
ments and sub-basements beneath the lava-tubes themselves, and these could be fol-
lowed far underground.
The features of these complex tube systems were often quite similar to those of the
far more common limestone caverns and tunnels, and included such things as tubular lava
stalactites and stalagmites, flowstones and lava falls above plunge-pools. Windows in the
floors of some tube levels gave access into lower levels, and so on. A whole exciting new
range of possibilities began to open up to Drew as he read of these fairly recent discover-
ies in Hawaii. !f they could occur in the shield-volcanoes of Hawaii, surely the same sort
of complexities must have happened to those here in Australia? Both the huge Nount
Warning volcano and those on the NcBride volcanic Province plateau around Undara had
all been of the vast, shield-variety!
!t was as the full implications of this new data, sank in, that Drew suddenly heard a
strange whirring, clack-clacking" sound approaching from the southeast, and racing to
the window he saw a helicopter approaching the homestead, barely a hundred feet over
the treetops! `Terrific! said Drew to himself, feeling suddenly filled with elation. Èrrol and
Bob are back Home at last!
He pulled on his boots and hat and raced out into the yard, where Charlie and the
other kids were standing in amazement with their Num, watching the chopper land upon
the rectangular yard within a couple of dozen yards of the homesteads back verandah!
This was IaI door-to-door service! However, Drew saw that Bob was in the pilots seat!
`Now for the bloody fireworks from Joan! he thought a tad grimly. `They could a! Ias!
have had the sns to stop a few miles from Glengarry and swap places! Now Bob will
IaII) cop it in the blooming neck!
But strangely, Joan said nothing. !nstead she ]ust smiled with great relief as Bob
climbed out of the helicopter followed by Errol, and came striding over to embrace her and
their admiring offspring smiling widely. Dont worry, love," Bob grinned, Errol put her
down a couple or three paddocks back down the road and let me fly her the rest of the
way! Just for the KIs sakes - o course!" Then he turned to wave at the chopper with
a sweep of his hand. Shes a real ripper, isnt she, Num! Waddaya say, kids?" The
youngsters all gave a loud cheer, and, much to Drew and Errols astonishment, Joan looked
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up at her husband in admiration and gave him a great big hug!
Errol grinned rather furtively at Drew, then gave his usual Dn! BIam M shrug,
with his palms outstretched sideways in mock resignation. Neanwhile the kids were all
over the aircraft, and Bob had to bellow at them to leave it alone. Next bloody thing
theyll be going for a bloody ))II in it!" he remarked to the others.
Yes!" smiled Joan, archly. Just like their blooming Dad, eh?"
Then they all headed into the house, leaving Stan and Jimmy walking around their
latest acquisition, gazing at it in wonderment, whilst young Charlie leaned on the fuselage
with one hand, pointing out all the parts of it with the other and learnedly explaining and
how they worked.
Errol paused and glanced over his shoulder out of the back doorway and shook his
head at Drew. Next thing young Cnas will be expecting goddamn flying lessons, too!"
he grinned wryly.
Drew ]ust grinned. Then he remembered his conversation with Doug Edwards.
Oh, Yeah! That reminds me! ! dunno what the monthly rental is on the whirlybird",
Erb, but !ve got some good news for you!" Then he went on to tell Errol about Dougs
offer of Clanranald Corporation footing any ma]or expenses they might incur in their geo-
logical survey-work, including the chopper" hire, and his offer to have a word with the
National Parks and Wildlife people about a special dispensation for them to conduct some
non-invasive research in the Undara Park area.
Errol was really delighted to hear this and all about the various other items that
Drew had sorted out during the day, including the Professors latest email. However, Drew
avoided mentioning his own stupid confusion over the Profs arrival date.
Sounds like you been a real busy beaver, Drew!" smiled Errol. But ! guess wed
better give the plane-rental guys a call about the changeover of hirers, or theyll wonder
what the hell were up to. Be happy to let your company take it over though, buddy! The
rental fees were a quite a bit on the steepish side - even for m! Holy Smoke! ! almost
decided to BUY us a second-hand one, instead! Anyhow, ! only hired it for six months.
W sure wont find much use for it down below, will we!"
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CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER 8 88 88
The following morning, after breakfast, the first thing Drew did was to check his
computer-mailbox to send Doug all the details of the helicopter-hire from the copy-docu-
ments Errol had brought back with him. Fortunately, Errol had arranged the six-month
rental in both their names, and - under the required statement relating to their proposed
usage of the aircraft - had written that they would be using it for some geological and
mineralogical exploration in Cape York. He nearly fell over when he saw that the rental of
the chopper - even though far from brand-new - was to be over $J2,UUU per month, and
murmured a quiet prayer of thanks to the Providence that had caused Doug Edwards to
mention that he would arrange to have this paid by the firm!
Doug had sent him the promised list of details regarding each of the Board members
together with his own private remarks about their personalities, foibles, and other busi-
ness interests. !n fact the lengthy email was virtually a set of secret dossiers, rather than
a simple Whos Who" of the board of Clanranald Corporation. Drew found it quite
entertaining reading, but he discovered nothing to feel concerned about relating to any of
the individuals named and described therein. So he sat down and carefully composed a
basic proforma letter that could be modified here and there to suit each members per-
sonality. Then he set about the onerous task of typing the separate email letters to them
all.
!n these, he explained that he was hereby officially advising them that he was
declining his right to take his father place either on the Board, or as the CEO, of the
company. !nstead, he urged them to honor his fathers own expressed desire that, in
such a situation as this, the present General Nanager should be appointed to the Chair-
manship of the Board. Since he himself would not be severing his connection with
Clanranald Corporation and would continue as the Companys ma]or stockholder, he heart-
ily endorsed his fathers choice of Douglas Edwards to be his successor.
Therefore, he keenly urged them to demonstrate their good business sense and
undoubted wisdom by forthwith appointing Douglas Edwards to the Chairmanship. Doug
was most eminently suited to the post, having most effectively and dedicated supervised
and conducted the Companys affairs over a number of years as its General Nanager.
Drew believed he would prove even mI effective - I/ an) nIgnI a gI / //IIn)
an Ia!In wI vn Im!I) pssIDI - as the future Chairman of the Board. !t
would be nothing more than his right and proper due for such unswerving loyalty and
dedicated service to Clanranald Corporation. He trusted that they all shared both his own
views and those of his deceased father in this, and that such views would be reflected in
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the outcome of their next meeting.
Drew left it at that, without any further mincing of words. They should get a
general idea of his own personal position from this, without any overt coercion on his part.
They were all older men who had greatly admired Alasdair, so he expected them to pay
him this last honor by acceding to his final wishes. He then sent the individual emails off
to the Board members confident about their compliance.
Now, having disposed of the difficult part of his correspondence, he turned his
attention to the more pleasurable task of acknowledging Professor Dinwiddies last mes-
sage, and wishing him a relaxing and en]oyable flight Down Under. He also mentioned
that they had already made something of a find within 200 miles of his present home, and
hoped to have a more detailed and positive report on it by the time he arrived. He told
him that Errol Burroughs would be waiting at Brisbane to meet his international flight and,
after a quietly relaxing meal in one of the restaurants, would fly him directly out to the
homestead. !n the meantime - Bn V)ag!
This duly sent, he was now able to turn his attention to two other emails hed
printed out that had arrived only a few hours earlier. One was from New Zealand, and the
other from Canada. The senders were the two young women whom he and Errol had
encountered on one of the Hollow Earth groups and had befriended from afar by the
miracle of electronic mail. Neither he nor Errol had the faintest idea what they looked like
or even how old they actually were. These were things one didnt usually probe into
overmuch on such groups. !t all added to the mystery of the thing!
Because of this rather clinical asexual association, theyd all been able to maintain a
close focus upon the sub]ect and exchange arguments and occasional badinage quite
freely. Drew had been quite pleasantly surprised at how the female mind could grasp
such convoluted concepts as those involved in their common topic.
His father had repeatedly told him that a womans place was in the home, raising a
family and tending to the welfare of her man. Hed often warned Drew not to get himself
tangled up with females who sought to be academically equal to men. Hed had several
such in Clanranald Corporation, and had often regretted taking them on in the first place.
Give a business woman, or even an aamI one, the faintest sense of equality with her
male counterparts, and one was inviting big trouble!
However, Drew clearly recalled his fathers total dependence upon his own personal
secretary, whose quick mind had saved him from both business and social calamity on
many occasions. Niss Richards - whom his father always referred to affectionately as
Jenny" - had been his s!Ing IIgn! aIm for more years than Drew cared to remember,
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and in addition she had also been the KpI / Tn KIngs MmI), too! Jenny" had
arranged both his business and his private lives with equally meticulous care, and Drew
knew that his father would have been totally lost without her. Hed often wondered why
Alasdair hadnt ]ust simply married Jenny!
So, in effect, Jenny had proved his father to be a fairly chauvinistic old fraud with
regard to women. !n any case, Drew, being a handsome and personable young man in a
rather rugged way, had always found himself quite at ease with the opposite sex - except
when they tried to inveigle him with their feminine wiles for the sake of adding another
eligible young male scalp to their belts.
That had been the good thing about his association with the females on the Net-
group. !t had been purely a meeting of minds, and they had become quite close friends,
even at such great distances, and all sight unseen!
He picked up one of the emails. !t was from the girl in New Zealand. Shed known
he was an Australian of course, back at Edinburgh, as hed stressed that the uk" on the
end of his then email address, didnt mean he was a local. And the nz" on the end of hers
had shown her at least to be a sort of neighbor at least. She had somehow taken more of
a mental liking to Drew than Errol, since his tendency towards brash American self-as-
suredness tended to come across in his messages.
New Zealanders, like Australians, preferred rather to hide their lights under bushels
in displaying their knowledge on argumentative issues. Thus a bond of antipodean kinship
had developed between them - a mateship" perhaps - in the old ANZAC tradition. Not
perhaps so surprisingly, in a like manner Errol had developed a similar mental rapport with
the Canadian girl for very similar reasons. But it had all been on a purely platonic and
scientific level among them all.
Apart from knowing that they both attending a famous Scottish university, the girls
had no idea that Drew and Errol were both from wealthy backgrounds, since the sub]ect
had never been raised. That was another plus in their favor with Drew and Errol. Nany
of their University flirtations and conquests had been enhanced somewhat by their rich
backgrounds being know among the female students. !t was hard to conceal such
knowledge in such a knowledgeable place!
But now Drew had really captured their attention by remarking, rather unguard-
edly, that he and Errol were actually contemplating an expedition into the bowels of the
Earth. This had proved to be a real drawcard with both girls, and they were anxious to
hear more. The New Zealand girl (I wman} had remarked in her message direct to
Drew that she would be interested in taking part if he was getting some kind of party
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together for the proposed expedition. After all, Brisbane was only a couple of hours or so
plane flight across the Tasman from Auckland, where she lived! Shed looked up Undara
on the Net and an atlas, and it looked very tempting!
Shed done a bit of backpacking around both islands of New Zealand as well as New
Guinea, but her only knowledge of Australia was from a trip to the Gold Coast in Queen-
sland the previous winter. Would he mind keeping her updated, as she was really keen to
give any such adventure a whirl? By the way, shed added, since they werent talking on
the group-list, her name wasnt DaIKangI, as per her email addresss pseudonym. !t
was HazI Twnsn. Both the girls had known that Drews and Errols names were their
a!uaI first names long ago, when theyd first ]oined the Hollow Earth group-list in Edin-
burgh but for some reason, women on the e-groups, chose to be rather mysterious and
esoteric about revealing their names.
She was of British stock, her parents having migrated to Enzed", before her birth,
from somewhere near Nanchester, England. !n between trips she helped her parents out
in their gardening-supply business. She said she was vI !wn!) - whatever that might
mean! - and that she liked caving and pot-holing. This was an interest that shed gained
from her parents, who had both been in the same speleological club in northern Derby-
shire. !t was also why shed been bitten by the Hollow Earth" bug! This was very
interesting news to Drew!
Drew now read through the other email. This was from MInnnana in British Co-
lumbia. !n many respects her message mirrored that of Hazels and she too had revealed
her true name to be MaIIann 5!vnsn, a kindergarten teacher in vancouver. She also
said that she was of Red !ndian blood on her mothers side. She too, was keen to ]oin any
expedition they were planning, and had been contemplating a trip Down Under for the
past couple of years. !t sounded such a nice, warm and friendly place! Also she was very
keen to check out the great Australian Outback, especially those great red rocky desert
areas which had always reminded her of Nars! She firmly believed that the !nner Earth
was peopled by hi-tech humanoids who used UFO spacecraft, as well as animal and veg-
etable life.
She didnt go into her antecedents, likes and dislikes, beyond a love of avIng,
but she waxed quite lyrical about her belief in the !nterior of the Earth and how she
longed to go there physically someday. Her mothers !ndian blood ran strongly through
her veins, and it seemed that there was much of the shaman in Narianne. She was also
a practiced Astral and Dream-Traveler, and claimed to have entered the !nner Earth many
times in the spirit. Drew was familiar with this aspect of Hollow Earth belief, even though
he was rather skeptical about it. But, hed long ago realized that one could never get off
First Base with a hermetically-sealed mind.
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TnI aI mI !nIngs In Havn an aI!n.. was now his main philosophy in life.
Nothing was impossible, and nothing could really be excluded in such a quest as they
were bent upon. !t seemed to him that Narianne could be as great an asset in her field
of expertise to their expedition as Hazel could in hers.
!t was whilst he was pondering upon these two messages that Errol poked his head
around Drews door. Hi, Drew!" he said, Are you decent? Hows the new computer
doing? Anything worth reporting?"
Drew waved him inside. Just pull up a pew, old son, and have a read at these!" He
held out the two message printouts from Hazel and Narianne. They might make your
day!"
Errol did as he was bidden, and, taking the messages from Drew, he sat on the edge
of Drews bed and read them both through, his eyes lighting up when he realized who
they were from. Then he handed them back to Drew his face shining like a Christmas
tree. Well, !ll be ggn!" he grinned. Whod have thought it! Looks like the rein-
forcements are on the way, old buddy! What do you think, Drew? Shall we invite them
over?"
Drew picked up the two letters himself and sat back in his computer chair, frowning
slightly and scratching his head in perplexity. You dont reckon, we might be ]umping
the gun a bit here, Errol?" he asked. ! mean, once we know /I suI that the fumarole
IaII) Is negotiable and s a!uaII) lead somewhere, !ll be quite happy to have them
over. But."
But its early days yet, eh?" finished Errol. Yeah! ! guess youre right. But when
aI we going to check the hole out, Bro? Today, tomorrow, or when the Prof gets here?"
He thought for a moment, then added, Naybe we send them a positive sort of reply
saying that as soon as weve checked out the first stage, and found things look promising,
well send for them - free trips, of course? Guess it might hold things up a tad, while they
get their flights booked, and all that ]azz.."
Oh! Blow it!" growled Drew. Youre a persuasive sod, Errol! !ll invite èm over
tonight - but )u can go and pick èm up in Brisbane!" Then he though a moment or two
longer. Hang on a tick! Any clues on where the hell theyre going to s!a)? Nums been
pretty accommodating thus far - an 1 n! man !na! as a )K1 - but this might be
pushing Ayers Rock uphill a bit, Errol! All the rooms are spoken for, and we can hardly
pitch èm a bloody tent in the back yard, can we?"
Errol grinned saucily. Well they can always shack up with m, buddy!" Then,
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seeing Drews sober scowl, he went on somewhat chastened, Do they hire out any de-
cent trailer-homes in Winton or Longreach? !f we could get a nice roomy, air-conditioned
]ob, itd.Hey!..WOAH!"
He ducked neatly aside ]ust in time to avoid the heavy boot that Drew hurled at his
head, then made a hasty chortling beeline for the door. A second later his face reappeared
around it again. Oh, yeah!" he leered ."And 1II be footing the bill for !nIs one!" His head
vanished again as the other boot whammed into the door]amb.
But the more Drew thought about Errols last suggestion, the more sense it made.
He ambled into the lounge-room and picked up the local Yellow Pages. Bob looked up
from his perusal of the Tv guide, and seeing the Yellow Pages phone-book in Drews hand,
he yelled: Watch out, Joan! Drewll be hiring a bloody great Zeppelin, next!"
He found that there was a large caravan park in Winton, but there were also a
couple of decent motels there, too. However, this would mean that they would have to
drive about 50 miles every time they wanted to pick the girls up or run them back again.
He now began to see the really sound idea behind Errols suggestion of a hire caravan in
the Glengarry homestead yard.
He rang up the Winton caravan park, but they were unable to help him as their vans
were already booked up. However, he met with more success in Longreach, and was able
to arrange a reasonable deal for the off-site hire of a large air-conditioned van. Com-
pared to their present outlays, the caravan rental was peanuts! He would send Stan down
to tow it to Glengarry during the next couple of days.
He then went back in to see Joan and Bob, and ask them how they felt about
entertaining two additional guests. He stressed that, since all the rooms were now occu-
pied or booked, they would be sleeping in a caravan in the yard - I/ this was OK with Bob,
of course! Surprisingly, they raised no ob]ections at all, except for Joan saying that they
would have to be prepared to have their meals at the same time as everyone else, and to
generally muK In with the family. !m not running a blooming hotel, you know, Drew!
So !ll expect a bit of consideration. and nIp!"
Finally, he composed, and sent off reply-emails to both Hazel and Narianne, in
which he invited them to come and stay at the homestead, and that upon receipt of their
acceptance, together with their passport and other details, he would make the appropri-
ate airline bookings for them to fly over to Brisbane. He would be paying their fares over
and their accommodation would be free - I/ they didnt mind sharing a luxury caravan!
Also he suggested that if they had any favorite caving gear, etc. to bring it with them.
Hed look forward to their replies as soon as possible!
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Now, at long last, he was clear of all the entanglements , and could get his head
together with Errol regarding their next visit to Undara. The orange tape had been
brought from the Council Depot by Stan, and the underwater gear, air-cylinders and wet-
suits were due to arrive air-cargo tomorrow from his Nackay Scuba dealer friend. Apart
from the girls and the Professor, they were ]ust about all set!
When he went out in search of Errol, he found him leaning on the horse-paddock
fence-rails, patting the horses and talking gibberish to them. They appeared to under-
stand him too! Naybe it was the American cowboy in Errol coming out! When Drew
suggested they go for a ride and abit of a yarn, Errol agreed at once, and before long,
Jimmy had their horses saddled up and evidently raring to go, ]udging by their happy
whinnies and head-tossings. Within a few minutes the pair were cantering out of the
back paddock gate and out on to the open grazing land. They rode swiftly for a little
while and allowed their mounts to ease off the pace in their own time. Then, as they
quietly ]ogged along at a steady walking pace, side by side, Drew asked Errol how he was
feeling about the way things were going in general, with regard to their forthcoming
adventures. After all, it was no mean undertaking!
Well, buddy, since you ask," said Errol after a little introspective thought, ! had
rather expected wed have been a bit further along by now. Things seem to have kinda
bogged down somehow, what with having to hang around for the Prof and all. ! believe
we ought to go check out that fumarole tomorrow, Drew, and see if we can shed a tad
more light on it! !d hate to have to tell the old guy that it was a bummer when ! see him
on Thursday! When did you say those suits were coming? And what about a block and
tackle to haul us out? Any news about all that, yet?"
Drew told him the diving-gear would be there first thing in the morning and that Bob
already had a spare block and tackle ready, complete with tripod, in the barn workshop.
He hoped that Bob would be able to spare the time to come with them and help out with
the setting up of the tackle and lend a few pounds of heaving-power on the rope. As far
as he was concerned, Drew believed that they could head off to Undara in the morning, as
soon as the diving-gear arrived! Hed ask Joan to pack them up some sammos for lunch,
and a couple of flasks of coffee or tea, so they wouldnt need to spend visiting the Tourist
Center. That way, they might be able to at least check out the first fumarole chimney and
see if it led to any sort of passage.
As for the whole thing being long-winded getting sorted, well, some poor sod had
to do all the organizational work, and in any case, hed also had to straighten things out
regarding the family firm, too. So how did all that grab him?
Errol nodded his understanding. Sorry, buddy, ! wasnt being critical of )u, its
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]ust so goddamn /Ius!Ia!Ing, hanging around waiting for something to happen! And you
I ask me how ! felt! Anyhow, tomorrow sounds fine to me, Drew!" Then he added Hey,
and before ! forget! What the hell is a goddamn samm, Drew? You keep springing
these Ockerisms on me out right of the blue! ! guess !m gonna have to invest in an
Aussie-slang dictionary next time !m near a bookstore! Then ! can teach it all to poor old
Din-Dins" when he arrives!"
Drew laughed at this. "Listen to the pot calling the kettle black!" he said. You Yanks
are ]ust as bloody bad as we are when it comes to slang!" Then he continued, As for
samms - theyre ]ust sanwIns, you dumbbell! And ! reckon old Din-Dins" needs a
bloody interpreter himself ! H!s1 D) n Kn wna! Anm !IIIng ), Man w mannI,
I aI ) )us! pIaIn gImIss7 Yn samms aI naI!nIng Du! Du!!Is1 " His highly-
passable imitation of the Professors Highland Scots accent nearly sent Errol toppling out
of his saddle, in a great fit of laughter.
Aw, hell, Drew!" He chuckled, gasping for air, ! can see that well wind up either
laughing our way into the !nner Earth, or die laughing in the attempt! Wouldnt have it
any other way, buddy!"
At this point in their meandering ]ourney, they suddenly discovered that the horses
had somehow recalled their previous ride and had brought them back to the large outcrop
of red rock where theyd tried to explore the narrow tunnel. However, although they
dismounted and wandered around a little, they manfully overcame the urge to go and try
out the other right-hand passageway theyd found. That would keep for a later date!
They were facing a far more formidable exploration at Undara! However, they did manage
to clamber up to the top of the outcrops highest pinnacle, and they found that the view
from there was quite breathtaking in its sheer immensity.
As far as the eye could see in any direction, the horizon was almost unobstructed,
except for the odd stand of bleached-looking white gumtrees and the occasional butte or
mesa of sandstone. Otherwise it was a total wilderness of sere desert grasses and circular
patches of prickly grey-green spinifex. There were no cattle to be seen, but Drew assured
Errol that they were there all right, probably standing in the meager shade of the wild
orange, wilga and leopard wood trees, and, of course, the coolabahs, for which the region
had gained some notoriety through Ban]o Patersons famous song, WaI!zIng Ma!IIa!
However, the relentless sun soon drove them to seek shelter in the shadow of the
outcrop, where their horses patiently and sensibly waited in the shade. Here they sat and
pondered what might await them once they began their subterranean eight-hundred mile
(np/uII) Iss} downward ]ourney. Drew had opened the conversation in this vein, and
Errol hastened to point out that once they reached the halfway mark at the (assum}
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gravity-sphere level, they should then begin climbing upwaIs again, but this time toward
the inner surface.
!ts really a pity we dont have any contact with the !nner Earthers." said Drew,
wistfully. !td be great to have a saucer land at the homestead and all of us ]ust hop on
board, and be whizzed straight in through one of the ocean portals!" He sighed heavily.
!nstead, weve got to fight our way through all sorts of dark tunnels and caves and hope
we manage to survive long enough to come out on the right surface!"
Or maybe, said Errol, not to be outdone, between us we mightve been able to
raise the wind sufficiently to build a big earth-boring inner-space craft, like my illustrious
namesakes Abner Perry and David !nnes!" said Errol, !f only wed had the mechanical
know-how to design such a goddamn machine!"
! recall a guy on the Net once talking about there being a regular portal in Tn
DvIIs TIIangI in the North Atlantic, where the water kind of vortexed right through the
crust, from the outer to the inner ocean." said Drew. He also reckoned there were many
similar submarine portals around the worlds oceans, and that the !nner Folk were able to
come and go through them in UFOs when the vortex was operating. As ! recall it, he
reckoned they were able to create these vortexes whenever they wished by some sort of
n!III natural means!.
Nost of the ships and planes that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle, were sucked
down and through by this vortex. !t affected the atmosphere above the portal as well as
the sea, which is why the planes went down. He said the sometimes the same vortex,
could bring them back in the opposite direction later on. They reckon thats what happen
to those Gruman Navy planes from fort Lauderdale in Florida!
Errol leered a bit skeptically at Drew when he mentioned this. Ahh! Youre trying to
kid a kidder there , buddy! You saw that in CIs nun!Is / Tn TnII KIn,
Speilberg only put that bit in for //!! !t never a!uaII) happened!"
But Drew ignored the ]ibe and kept right on making his point. Would 1 try to have
a lend of )u, mate?" he asked earnestly. "Anyhow, the Yanks havent cornered the whole
market on this sort of thing! The Japanese have a similar phenomenon off their eastern
coast - its called Tn DvIIs 5a! Theyve lost heaps of big ships and fishing-boats - an
planes - in ]ust the same way! So how about !na! then, eh?"
They discussed many aspects of the !nner Earth and how they might have been able
to get their more easily, if only theyd had recourse to the sort of equipment such as Edgar
Rice Burroughs had devised for his heroes, both on Earth and Nars. !t was great for sci-
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fi authors to invent marvelous machines such as Wells Cavorite-coated shutters on Cavors
polygonal Noon-craft in FIIs! Mn n !n Mn, or vernes deep-sea submarine craft in
Twn!) Tnusan Lagus UnI !n 5a. But for them, in this highly-technological
time in history, it appeared they were doomed to use 5nanKs Pn) to get to the !nner
Earth!
However, if !na! was what it was going to take - well, s D I!! They had their lives
before them and all the time in the world! Well - They np they had! This led Errol,
who was a tad more cautious than Drew regarding his personal safety and well-being on
the ]ourney, to raise the question of wna! or wn they might encounter en route to the
inner surface.
He said hed read a book some time previously which posed a scenario in which the
crustal depths of the earth were actually the domain of devils and demons - a sort of
genuine old-fashioned Hell. But the !nner hollow part of the Earth was actually the realm
of Paradise, where all the old prophets and suchlike Biblical characters, like Abraham, had
resided in complete comfort and peace. Then, after His Crucifixion, Jesus went down
there and took them all up to Gods Heaven, which existed in a different dimension alto-
gether. He said that some modern Pentecostals actually believed that Heaven was a giant
planet somewhere in space, where the good folks whod passed on were able to live
forever in regular physical, but immortal, bodies! But Drew, who had long since aban-
doned any such religious ideas, laughed at this idea.
What you mean, mate, is something that ! once heard some bloke say on the Net
- 1/ )u wan! ! g! ! Havn, )u nav ! g !nIugn HII /IIs!1. Well, old cobber," he
grinned, waving a demonstrative arm, ! reckon !nIs is the real Hell right nI, all around
us!"
Errol removed his hat to wipe his sweating brow. You got !na! right, bro!" he said,
!n fact ! got a hunch its a goddamn sight n!!I than Hades out here!"
Yeah, must agree with you, Errol, old son! ! reckon we ought to head back and get
ourselves a nice cold shower - or even a swim in the dam! Waddya reckon?"
Within five minutes they were riding easily back toward the homestead, not overex-
erting the horses in the mid-morning heat. Just before they reached the huddle of build-
ings and shady trees of the homestead, they tied their horses to a large shady tree beside
the big dam which supplied much of the stocks drinking-water during the real drought
spells, and quickly stripping off their clothes, they both dived headlong into its refresh-
ingly cool waters. Cool, that is, in comparison to the air-temperature which was already
up into the high thirties, n!IgIa!
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They literally had a whale of a time splashing around for a quarter-hour, until Drew
told Errol it was time to get out of the suns dangerous Uv radiation. Skin-cancer, he said,
was tremendously prevalent out here in outback Australia - something to do with the
thinning Antarctic ozone-layer. The old time diggers hadnt seemed to be bothered by it to
anything like the extent that even the city-Aussies were today.
Still that wont be any problem where were heading, will it?" He remarked as they
got dressed again, being already dried out by the suns heat alone.
As they came up to the homestead, they saw a delivery truck ]ust leaving the yard.
By the time they got there it had already headed off toward Winton, trailing a red-brown
plume of dust. Bob was looking over some cardboard packages on the back porch that
bore the stickers of a well-known air-cargo company.
Hearing the soft clopping of their horses hoofs, Bob looked up and saw them ap-
proaching. Hey, Drew!" he shouted, Some packages ]ust came in from Longreach for
you! Came in on the mornings airfreight. Were you expectin somethin from Nackay?"
He hefted one of the cardboard cases. Feels a bit heavy, too, son!"
Drew left Errol to see to the horses and took the back steps two at a time. A quick
glance at the senders docket under its transparent plastic patch, told him it was the
underwater-gear hed ordered from his Diving Supplies friend on the coast.. He ripped
back the tape around the box top and found a brand-new underwater face-mask with all
its attachments packed in separate plastic packets. There were two others in the same
case, as well as safety-helmets fitted with head-lamp attachments.
Got anywhere safe ! can keep this stuff, Bob?" He asked. ! dont want the kids to
start fooling around with any of this gear - its fragile, dangerous and bloody expensive!"
Bob scratched his head a moment then he nodded. Yair, You can stow all your stuff in the
store room behind my office, Drew. The doors got a lock and its reasonably clean.
Should be safe as a bank in there!"
Within a few minutes they had carted all the various boxes and packages through
Bobs office and into a fairly roomy storage area behind it, partitioned and ceilinged with
white undercoated hardboard paneling. !t even had a sliding window at one end which
admitted plenty of light. There was also a long bench and a couple of cupboards on the
wall behind it. Just as they were dumping the packages beside the bench, Errol came in,
having finished unsaddling the horses, watering them down and turning them loose in
the shady orchard paddock.
Hey, fellers! What gives? then he noticed the labels on the boxes, marked Air
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Cargo", and also caught a glimpse of a Scuba face-mask in the opened box. Oh, great!"
he said, rubbing his hands together happily. So the wetsuits and breathing gear have
arrived, eh! This mean we might be able to make a start today, Drew?" he asked eagerly.
Drew glanced at his wristwatch.
Nmmmh." he murmured, shrugging negatively. !ts not all that far off lunchtime,
mate, it might be a bit of a waste of time ]ust for a couple or three hours, today, And we
need to check all this gear out properly first before we start using it, Errol, in case there
are any problems.."
Errol looked a little deflated at this, but it made sense, no experienced cave-diver
would ever use new gear without testing it first, so he brightened up. OK, then! What say
we check it out in the dam this afternoon!" he grinned.
Drew thought this was a good idea, not to mention a nice refreshing one. Right you
are, cobber!" he said cheerfully, Youre bloody well n!"
* * *
By mid afternoon after a great deal of raucous laughter and splashing, that brought
first the kids giggling excitedly and then an inquisitive Joan down from the house, they
agreed that their new diving-gear was first-class and in tip-top working order. They
emerged from the now muddy waters of the dam looking like a pair of frolicking seals, in
their black shining wetsuits, masks and flippers. As they unlocked their harnesses and
lowered their air-cylinders to the ground, Charlie asked them if he could have a go. Drew
had no alternative but to rebuff him, with the admonition that this definitely wasn! kids
stuff, and it could be very dangerous in inexperienced hands.
Charlie ]ust scowled and walked away. As he went, he looked back over his shoulder
and called back angrily that he wasnt a little kid any more, he was nearly fifteen, and he
could have been very useful in their expedition. But now they could keep their rotten
helicopter and their lousy diving outfits. He ambled away, his shoulders hunched in deep
disappointment.
Dont worry about Charlie!" said Joan, as Drew rather concerned watched the boy
walk away, irritably kicking stones out of his path, his clenched fists thrust deep into his
trouser pockets. Hell get over it! Hes got to learn that he cant follow you everywhere
- and I!aInI) n! underground!"
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Hmmm.." pondered Drew, as he helped Errol peel himself out of his wetsuit, ! still
feel a bit lousy about not letting him do more with us, Num! Still ! suppose youre right.
This is no game for young blokes like him. !ll try to get him interested in doing things for
us on the computer instead. Naybe then he wont feel so left out of things, eh?"
Then they all walked back from the dam, Drew and Errol back to their gear-room
behind Bobs office to ready their diving tackle for the morrow, and Joan and the girls back
to the house, to get the evening meal started. As the two young men were drying out the
wet suits and powdering them inside with French chalk. Bob poked his head round the
door.
All OK?" he asked. The gear work all right, did it? ! was ]ust thinkin. !f you need
a bit of a hand tomorrow up at Undara, you can borrow Jimmy if you want. Neither of èm
have much to do around here that wont wait, so if Jimmy comes with you, he could
maybe help fix up the block antackle for you, an, so forth..Thats if the chopperll hold
four fellers, of course!"
Oh, thanks, Bob!" said Drew with a perplexed grin. !f shell hold /uI, did you say?
But thered only be !nI of us.? "
Ahah!" said Bob, Youre forgettin me, Drew! Yer dont think !m goin to dip out on
!nIs, do you? Not bloody likely, mate! Not after what Errol told me the other day on the
way to Brisbane, !ve started to get real interested in this idea of yours! Nust admit it all
sounds a bit bloody farfetched, but! Still, he definitely got me in with all this talk of a
hollow earth! ! mean, when you think about it a bit deep, like - nobodys ever been down
there beyond the odd coal-mine, or places like Nount !sa mine, have they?"
He stared out of the window, rubbing his chin wistfully. Gee! ! wish ! was your age
again! !d be down there with you like a rat down a bloody drain!" He grinned at them
both. Dont worry!" he said. !m only dreamin out loud!" Then he left them to it, and
went off to arrange with Stan about bringing the hired trailer-caravan up from Longreach
the next morning.
Gee! Buddy!" said Errol. Old Bobs really caught the bug, hasnt he! Pity he cant
come with us, but as he says, hes probably a bit over the hill for all that, now."
Drew grinned at him. Dont write him off ]ust yet, mate! Hell probably be out here
trying on one of the wetsuits as soon as we go indoors! Hes as game as Ned Kelly, is our
Bob! Yu should know that by now, mate, after his chopper-flying capers! Next thing,
hell be asking us to let him have a shot at Scuba-diving!"
Errol stared at him. Wouldnt surprise me, either!" he said. Then he went on, By
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the way, Drew -whos this goddamn N KII) guy everybody talks about?"
At first light next morning, they were already on their way to up to Undara again, but
this time at a much reduced speed compared to their first trip in the Cessna. The helicopters
cruising speed was only a half of the planes, and they had to make a diversion to Hugh-
enden to top up the fuel-tank en route. This was the ma]or drawback with small choppers
- their range was very limited on a single tank of gas, and Errol silently cursed himself for
not inquiring about getting an extra tank fitted. But the only problem with that was the
extra wIgn!. The extra fuel supply would have really tended to cancel itself out through
the additional load it would make!
He could only hope that there was a chopper fuel-supply depot at Undara, in the
unlucky event of them not having enough to get back! His main worry was the extra
weight of gear they had on board. !n addition to the four passengers, and the stack of
stuff they had with them, they had stowed a large coil of light, but extremely tough nylon
climbing-rope, as well as the heavy block and tackle under one of the seats. And the three
wooden tripod poles were lashed across the helicopters landing skids. However, if he
took it easy, and didnt flog the engine too hard, they should be OK. The other thing that
nagged him about having to conserve fuel was that theyd have to greatly curtail their
proposed quick low-altitude search for any other vents or fumaroles. However, theyd
have to live in hope! !f he could top her up again at Undara before returning home, there
would be no problem.
This kept Errols mind fully occupied, whilst the other three - especially Jimmy,
whod never flown in anything in his life before - were taking in the great view as they flew
leisurely over the savannah bush country. !n a plane one tended to zoom past everything
at warp-speed, with little opportunity to check out the land passing directly beneath one.
However, from the chopper, the view was infinitely better and they were able to see things
in far greater close-up due to their much lower altitude. The flight, apart from their brief
landing at Hughenden for fuel, was much more relaxing even though twice as long. By
nine oclock they were circling over Undara, looking for the bright red square of the ban-
dana that Drew has left tied on top of a tree to mark the fumarole.
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At first it eluded them until Jimmys sharp eyes spotted a flash of crimson among the
low foliage. TnI1" he cried, pointing away to one side of the old volcano craters
vegetated slope, 1 s nIm1 Drew followed Jimmys pointing black finger, and after
staring hard for a second or two, as Errol banked around to the indicated direction, he
saw it for himself. A minute speck of bright red against a vast carpet of sparse grey-green
foliage and sand. He thanked his lucky stars that Errol had ]ust chanced to be wearing the
rather flashy bandana last time they were here!
By this time Errol had spotted it too, so within a couple of minutes they had located
an area relatively free from the stunted trees, and had landed. They could even see the
fumarole quite clearly as they descended. !t was only a hundred feet or so, away from
their landing-site. They climbed out and wasted little time unloading all the gear theyd
brought, and unlashing the tripod poles from the skids.
Bob surprised them when he produced a neatly-packed lightweight nylon tent com-
plete with groundsheet, second outer cover and fly-screened side panels, that hed smuggled
aboard. At least they now had a shady and fly-free place to eat and rest!
Drew congratulated Bob for thinking of one of the many items he was sure hed
overlooked. As he did so, Errol ]oined them and asked Drew if he thought they should let
the Park people know they were there. Drew grinned wryly, looking over Errols shoulder.
Dont think you need to, old son!" he said. Looks to me like they already bloody Knw!"
Errol swiveled around in time to see a four-wheel drive bouncing along between the trees
toward them. !t was their friendly Guide, Leo, and he had the lady supervisor with him
who had welcomed them on their previous visit.
Oh, Hell!" groaned Errol in consternation, ! suppose shes gonna read us the god-
damn Riot Act, for pitching camp without letting her know!" But happily, he was wrong.
As the lady supervisor and Les climbed out of the vehicle, she greeted them all pleasantly
and she gave Drew a particularly big smile.
Good morning! she beamed at him, casting her gaze around the others. Leo here
was remarking only yesterday that you hadnt been back, and that we might have some-
how sent you the wrong vibes about your research, or something! !m glad to see he was
wIng!" Then she went on to tell Drew that shed spoken to her superiors and that, as
long as they werent going to start any excavations, fires or explosions or anything like
that, they were welcome to carry out their investigations. Particularly since they were well
away from anyplace where visitors might venture. Shed only been concerned in case
they were working for a mining corporation or something, and might want to start setting
up drilling towers and suchlike eyesores.
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Drew and Errol exchanged relieved glances at this. !f only she Knw! Then he told
her that he was quite happy to reassure her that they wIn! doing anything for an)
mining company, and that all this was entirely a private affair for their own geological
edification. There was absolutely no mmIIaI In!Is! involved at all.
!f anything," he added, the results of our exploration might very well end up
making Undara an even more world-famous geological site that ever!" He smiled down at
her in a mysterious fashion. Were looking for something pretty astounding, but ! dont
want to spill the beans ]ust yet, in case it all leads us nowhere, but - well. well see what
happens!" Again he gave her an enigmatic smile. Lets ]ust put it this way," he said,
seeing the puzzlement on her face. !f we find what were hoping down there," he pointed
to the fumarole. Youll be one of the /IIs! to know, OK?"
Youre not searching for Iamns, or anything like that, are you? Only if..." Her
voice trailed away from such an idea before Drews wide smile.
No, No!" he laughed, shaking his blond locks from side to side. This is something
far more important, and way beyond an) matter of commercial interest! Were not inter-
ested in gems or gold! !ts a purely sIn!I/I thing! !f ! told you what it was, youd
probably send for the men in the white coats!"
She seemed to accept then that he wasnt going to divulge their secret quest, but,
like all of her gender, she was ]ust itching to know what exactly they wI looking for.
However, after staring at him uncertainly for a moment, she finally gave up, smiled know-
ingly at him and with a bemused shake of her head, turned back toward their vehicle.
Behind her back, Drew exchanged a slow wink with Leo.
As they prepared to leave, Errol suddenly recalled something hed been wanting to
ask. Oh, before you go," he called, addressing Leo," ! was wondering if you know of any
chopper refueling facilities around this area? We have to watch our usage pretty.." The
supervisor answered him obliquely by turning toward Leo saying: W should be able to
accommodate them with !na!, shouldnt we, Leo?"
Leo, nodded at Errol. Yair! No worries there, mate, but youll have to pay the going
rate of course! Just drop over to the shed by the landing-strip, and give us a buzz as you
go over! Somebodyll nip out and fix you up!" Then they both gave the two a cheery
wave and drove bumpily away in the direction of the Tourist Center.
Well! Thats a bloody relief!" sighed Drew, after the four wheel drive car had
vanished bouncily among the trees. ! thought we were going to be told to nick off, for
a moment there!"
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Errol was also grinning in relief, too, now that his fuel crisis was solved. All we have
to do now," he grinned, is to get this goddamn show on the road!"
They all went across to the fumarole, and flashed a couple of torches down inside. !t
still looked the same as the last time theyd looked. Bob peered down the throat of the
tube with great interest. Ah, ! can see now why you wanted the wetsuits and breathing
apparatus! ! expect youre worried about bad air or sulfur gas, eh? Hope youve got
gloves with you, `cause that sulfur can sometimes give you a fair old burn if you get it on
your bare skin!"
Drew assured him that theyd already thought about that, hence all the underwater
gear. ! think we need to check out the air down there first, anyhow. No point wasting
tank-oxygen if we dont need it. Pass me a couple of sheets of that old newspaper-
packing - and the matches too, will you, Errol?"
Errol did as he was asked, and Drew, warning everyone to step away from the hole,
lit a piece of crumpled paper. When it blazed, he dropped it down the fumarole shaft,
fervently hoping it wouldnt explode and bring the rangers racing back
They all expected some sort of flash or muffled explosion, but none came. A curl of
bluish smoke was all that arose from the hole as the paper burned away. Now Drew
crumpled up a much larger ball of newsprint and set light to it. This time when he
dropped it down the hole, he and Errol stayed to watch it tumble down the shaft burning
brightly until it vanished around the bend in the vent-tube. They could still smell the
smoke of its burning - and !na! was aII they smelt. This could only mean one thing! The
air down there was clean and fresh!
!f it had been foul with carbon dioxide, the flames would have gone out immedi-
ately, and had there been any sulphurous gas present it, would probably have exploded in
a large outburst of evil rotten-eggs smelling, yellowish smoke! The fumarole was obvi-
ously clear of noxious vapors. This was indeed heartening news!
Great!" exclaimed Drew, shaking Errol by the hand in his enthusiasm. Were clear
to GO, old mate! Lets get suited up, pIn!!"
Within a quarter of an hour or so, they were garbed in their underwater gear, but
wearing climbing boots instead of fins. However, in view of the obvious clearness of the
air in the fumarole, they decided to let Bob and Jimmy lower their breathing apparatus
and oxygen tanks down after them. Both pairs had walkie-talkies so there was no need for
any rigmarole with using tugs on ropes as signals.
They tied ropes to their rappelling harnesses, and then began to clamber down into
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the gaping mouth of the fumarole. !n addition to their wetsuits, goggles and gloves, they
both wore cave-diving safety-helmets. Each was fitted with two lights - an electrical lamp
connected to a battery pack attached to the harness, and a carbide lamp. These latter
produced their own acetylene gas by dripping water on to grains of carbide and could
operate for many hours before requiring more water to be added
The ropes during this preliminary look-see" were purely an additional safety-mea-
sure in case of one of them losing his handgrip on the way down. A broken leg during this
initial test stage would have ended the expedition before it even began.
No accidents, pIas!" shouted Drew with grin as he switched on his helmet lights
and climbed down into the vent pipe.
Errol followed him after a few moments, giving the thumbs-up salute to Bob and
Jimmy who were holding the thin static ropes taut, as instructed. Jimmy flashed his great
white-toothed dusky grin as Errol began his descent.
Hey, Nister Errol! You watch out them big Yow fellers dont getcha down there!
Night wanna eatcha for their Smoko!" Then both he and Bob laughed uproariously.
Errol ]ust waved back and scowled. He wasnt all that sure that Jimmy might not be
speaking the truth without knowing it!
Hed read a lot of weird tales about humanoid reptilians and Gray aliens living in
subterranean tunnels in the USA, and that they worked in cahoots with the Government in
some nefarious unholy alliance. But, although hed poured ribald scorn upon such crazy
New World Order crap", now that he was actually going underground himself, he wasnt
quite so sure the tales were without actual foundation. However, he put it out of his mind
and concentrated upon climbing carefully down the tube.
As he looked down for places to put his feet, he could see the glow of Drews lamps
lighting up the vent down below him. The climb wasnt too difficult as long as one
carefully tested each foot and handhold as one went. The thing he was most concerned
about was that he might inadvertently dislodge one of the slippery sulfur-stained rocks,
and send it crashing down onto Drews head. Better give him a call!
Hey! Drew! Hows it going down there? he called. Any probs yet? Seems to be
plenty of room so far!"
Drews voice echoed back up the tube. Now worries, mate! !ts a blooming doddle!
Youll ]ust have to watch yourself around that kinky bit, but it seems to be straight down,
now. ! still cant see any floor yet, but! Could be a hell of a bloody drop if we were to slip
- so for Petes Sake, take it as), Errol!"
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Errol suddenly found himself having to negotiate the bend in the vent-pipe, but he
got around it safely enough. The only impediment he encountered was Drews safety
static-line which tended to get in his way a little. Naybe he should have waited until Drew
had struck bottom first, so that his line would have been slackened off. Still, it saved a bit
of time following reasonable closely.
They kept up their conversation as they went on down the tube, and occasionally
they heard Bob yelling down from the top of the fumarole to see how they were getting
on. The vent tube turned out to be an excellent conductor of sound, and they could hear
each other clearly, but gradually Bobs voice became steadily fainter as they continued to
descend. There was also quite a draught of warm air being sucked down the tube, which
made an eerie sighing sound as it blew around them. However, it was definitely becom-
ing quite cool now the deeper they went, so the warmth of the indrawn outer air was
welcome.
Suddenly, Errol heard a muffled oath from Drew beneath his feet, and a noisy clat-
tering racket echoed up the shaft, followed by the sound of a distant impact of stone upon
stone. Errol found himself almost paralyzed with a sudden dread that Drew might have
fulfilled his own earlier warning.
For an interminable moment, Errol remained frozen in situ, as his imagination ran
riot. Then, he heard a groaned curse from below him. He would have clapped for sheer
]oy had his claw-like fingers not been locked in a vice-like grip of iron upon the ]utting
rocks of the vent wall.
Bloody hell!" Drews voice echoed up to him. Thought !d gone for a proper bloody
necker, !na! time, old mate!" he called in a relieved tone. Just put my foot on a rock and
it fell from under me! !ve been hanging here like a crippled bloody spider reaching about
with my boot, trying to find another foothold!"
He exhaled a great sigh of relief. But !m right now, Erb! ! had to dangle myself at
arms length till ! found another safe possie! !m going down again now, so ]ust watch out
for that treacherous bit, mate! Anyhow. From the sound of the rock falling ! reckon about
another thirty forty feet should see me down on solid ground."
Got you, Drew!" Errol replied. Give me a holler when you touch bottom!" "
Roger that, Houston!" came Drews now-confident response.
Then Errol heard a faint cry from far above them. !t was Bob wanting to know what
had happened and were they all right? Everythings ]ust dandy!" yelled Errol leaning
back against the rear wall to shout upwards. Drew ]ust tried to widen the shaft a little is
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all!" then, as an after thought, he added, Send us a couple of nice cold beers down, will
ya!" Then he returned to his descent. He negotiated the dodgy area that had nearly
brought Drew to grief, and continued his climb. A few minutes passed with no verbal
exchange. All that could be heard was the sighing of the air as it was sucked down the
tube around him, then a triumphant shout came up from below him.
!m wn now, mate! And its like a bloody wind-tunnel down here!" This gave
Drew a big lift, and he covered the last stretch as smoothly and speedily as an elevator in
a lift-shaft. Just before he reached the bottom of the descent, he looked down and saw
Drews face grinning up in the light of his own helmet-lamps. !t was like an instant
snapshot recorded on the film of his memory. There were to be many more of such
freeze-frame photographs added to his mental picture-album over the weeks to come!
As he finally dropped the last two or three feet to stand beside him, he felt a sense of great
elation. The two chums gripped each other firmly by the hand, and Drew summed it all
up neatly by deliberately misquoting Neil Armstrongs famous: Tna!s n smaII s!p /I
man. On gIan! Iap /IwaI /I !n HIIw aI!nIs1 Not to be out done, Errol added.
A )uIn) / a !nusan mIIs DgIns wI!n Du! a sIngI Iums) sIIp1
Their two safety-ropes which had now gone slack, suddenly performed a wiggling
dance down the shaft, as Bob and Jimmy, up above, feeling a relaxation of the tension
upon them, realized that they must now be safely down. So Drew gave both ropes a
series of sharp ]erks in reply: Tug-!ug!!)-!ug-!ug - Tug-!ug1
Hey! Hey!" protested Errol, "Not so goddamn naI, buddy! You might yank èm out
of their hands, then how do we get back up again?" Drew ]ust grinned at him.
Errol now looked around, and found that they were standing in what must have
once been a large gas tunnel or chamber. By the lamps on his helmet, he saw that the
walls and ceiling were smoothed and heavily stained with sulphurous-yellow streaks and
he felt the wind rushing through the place with a fairly strong pressure. !t was obviously
a draught being sucked in through an external opening somewhere, but not ]ust from the
shaft they had descended. !t was far too strong for that. Where could it be going to and
what could be causing such a powerful suction effect?
Well," said Drew beside him, Now were weve proved that the fumarole is acces-
sible, and were down here, we might as well take a bit of a look around, eh?"
Then he took his walkie-talkie out of its pouch on his belt, and clicked it on. A second
or two later he heard a click and Bobs voice answering. That you, Drew? Sounds like
you got down in one piece then, eh! Good on you, son! What do you want to do now?
Come up again, or are you taking a gander around?" then following the best traditions of
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proper radio procedure, he added Er .Over!"
Drew grinned, wondering if Bob was ]ust having a shot at him. Then he dryly
replied Drew calling Base. Come in Base!" Bobs voice replied with equal sarcasm, in his
best posh Pommy accent: Drew! This is Base calling! Receiving you loud and clear. Are
you receiving me? Over." His mock-message ended in a stifled chuckle .
Drew could see that this could go on a nausam if he kept it up, so he replied
Course !m bloody receiving you, Bob! Knock it off will you - this is serious! Listen! Could
you get Jimmy to grab that roll of orange roadwork tape out of the chopper, and drop it
down here. Were going to poke around a bit, while were here, and wed better start as
we intend to go on - by leaving a proper trail-marker, OK?"
OK, Drew!" Bob replied. Send it down in a minute! Hang on!" A few moments
later, as they stood away from the vent-pipe, the roll of fluorescent tape came tumbling
down amid a shower of small stones, and hit the chamber floor with a soft thump. Thanks,
Bob!" said Drew into the mouthpiece, !ll give you a buzz when we want to come up. OvI
an Ou!1" Then he put the radiophone away, and picked up the plastic-wrapped coil of
tape. Right, mate!" he said to Errol, as he removed the packaging and tie-strings. Lets
get going and see where this leads to!"
* * *
The first thing they had to decide was which way to go, toward the draught of air or
to follow it. Errol pointed out that if they went toward the draught, it might only lead
them to another, possibly larger opening closer in toward the crater, in which case, they
must eventually encounter the lava plug that had formed after it stopped erupting. On
the other hand, the air-current might be venting out to the surface somewhere in the
other direction. !t was really six of one and half a dozen of the other! Drew was equally
puzzled, but he finally elected to go !waI the volcano cone into the breeze. Errol
agreed. !f it I lead them out to the surface again, maybe it might bring them to a larger
entrance.
And so they set off, Drew leading the way, and Errol, having trapped the end of the
tape under a fallen lump of rock below the fumarole tube, allowing it to unroll behind
them. Drew said he reckoned they were about a hundred feet below the surface, when
they left their point of entry, so itd be interesting to see which way the floor sloped. But
after around seventy or eighty yards, there was little doubt that they were going downhill.
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Noticing a shiny reflection on the wall of the long passage, Errol paused to look at it more
closely. !t looked as though it had actually been smoothed by wa!I action, rather than
any sulfuric gas. Drew didnt think it made a lot of difference. Naybe the volcano had
vented both sulfur dioxide an steam in its lifetime, along this same system of ducts?
They walked on a little further along the inky black gallery with Drew still in the lead and
Errol trailing the roll of tape behind.
Suddenly Drew ]umped backwards, colliding heavily with Errol as he did so. By
Cripes!" he shouted. ! nearly came a bloody gutser !nI, mate!" He bowed his head
forward, to point his helmet-lamps toward the floor. Their ]oint beams revealed a large,
gaping black pit about eighteen inches in front of his feet! !t was easily ten feet across
and, at first glance, appeared to vanish vertically down. However, as they both leaned
closer toward it, they were able to see that it was actually a rather steeply inclined !uD
that sloped away downhill somewhere. Underneath the cone of the volcano - as far as
could be ]udged by sense of direction and memory of the above- ground layout. Drew
cursed himself for not having brought his newly-acquired ex-Army compass with him. !t
was still in his bag in the chopper.
Errol ventured forward carefully, and lowered his foot down into the sloping pit. Not
too steep," he commented. ! guess we could walk down it OK - as long as we didnt break
into a goddamn gaIIp - and theres plenty of headroom." He stepped back up out of the
hole. Waddaya think, Drew? At least its heading in the right direction - DOWN!" Drew
looked back at the remaining less-than-half roll of fluorescent tape, which he knew had
held two hundred yards. They must be over three hundred feet from their point of entry.
Then he realized something else. The air-current was blowing up out of the sloping
tunnel! He looked around beyond the circumference of the pit to see where their present
gallery went beyond it.
To his surprise, after a few paces it came to a blind rounded end. !n fact the gallery
above and around the top of the sloping pit, seemed to have a bottle-like shape as far as
his lamp-beams could illuminate. So they had no other alternative Du! to follow the
sloping tunnel if they were to proceed. !t seemed to him that this ballooned effect
around the end of the gallery must have been caused by a constant and violent upblasting
of superheated steam issuing from the mouth of this steeply-sloping tube. The pressure
must have been really enormous!
Drew decided it was time for a pause and a think. What do you reckon, Erb, old
son?" he asked Errol. Do we carry on down this new tunnel a bit further IIgn! nw, or do
we go back, contact Bob and get some more gear sent down, !nn check it out a bit
further? Or, alternatively, do we wait till we have old Din-Dins with us? Hell be here in
!w a)s !Im. or had you forgotten?"
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Errol nan! forgotten. Hed been worrying about the fuel situation for the chopper
precisely because of having to go to pick up the Professor in Brisbane. But now that
problem was largely solved, hed ceased worrying. But the idea of having to wait another
couple of days - probably another week - to see what lay down the tunnel was more than
he could stand. No! The hell with it! Lets go a bit further while we have the chance,
Drew!" he said. We might have a heap more to tell old Din-Dins when he arrives!"
Drew looked at his watch. !t was close to noon. OK!" he said, Spoken like a true
adventurer! Well nip back to the shaft and get Bob to drop us a few extras down - and
maybe some eats, too! Then well have a lash at this next bit! We still have around three
or four hours left yet.."
Yeah! !ncluding at least one of those goddamn hours climbing back out of here!"
groaned Errol, unhappy at the prospect.
But Drew ]ust smiled at him. Forgotten something else, havent you!" And when
Errol peered at him with a puzzled face, Drew said Why dyou think we brought the block
and tackle, you idiot! Bob and Jimmy should be able to haul us up like corks out of a
bloody bottle!" He shook his head pityingly at Errol and grinned.
Lets get a bite of lunch then come back to this afterwards." he said, heading back
along the bright orange line of the tape, with a now-ravenous Errol close behind.
Joan had prepared a packed lunch of bully-beef samms (or sandwiches) for
them all before they had left the homestead. So they had Bob lower some down the
fumarole shaft in a canvas bag on a spare line, together with a flask of hot coffee and
Drews compass, a note pad and pen and another roll of the orange tape. Drew had called
for these over the intercom, and he had also asked Bob to check the bearing of the hole in
relation to the volcano crater. He was now able to verify his guess as correct, in that the
sloping shaft theyd discovered actually I dive down into the deeper reaches below of
the volcano.
They could only hope now that they didnt eventually run into the solid lava plug
that must have been left after it had ceased to erupt! However, the curious draught of air
seemed to indicate that there na to be an ongoing passage or chamber further on.
As they sat beneath the shaft eating and drinking, Drew quizzed Bob over the inter-
com how things were going up top.
Aw, not too bad, Drew," replied Bob, apart from the bloody heat, flies, and the
waitin around. Otherwise, were havin a bloody ripper time of it up here!" His bored
irony came through loud and clear. ! shouldve brought my radio and the racing-pages!
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Jimmys OK, hes takin a nice kip now! Only wish T could, mate!"
Dont even !nInK about it!" returned Drew. !f we get into any strife we need
somebody to be wide awake and on the ball up there! Have you rigged up the block and
tackle yet, Bob - ]ust in case we need to get out of here in a bloody hurry?"
All fixed, son!" Bob replied. We might be bored out of our skulls, mate, but were
not DIugIng up here!" Then he corrected himself. Well, 1m not anyhow!"
Then, Drew heard Jimmy faintly remonstrating in the background, and Bobs muffled
hand-over-mouthpiece" profane response to his protest. Bob must have removed his
covering hand as his voice came back clearly again. By Cripes! Jimmy sleeps with one
eye an both his bloody ears wide open! Didnt half go off at me ]ust then! Reckons !
called him a bludger!" He laughed so loudly down the phone that Drew had to quickly
hold his receiver away from his ear. Anyhow, son. Whats the story? !s there a way
through down there? Whats it like - bloody aIK, ! suppose?"
Drew quickly filled him in on what theyd found and that they wanted to check this
new tunnel a bit further before they came up to the surface again.
OK," said Bob. But dont do anything silly, will you? And dont forget to come up in
plenty of time for us to get back to Glengarry! ! dunno if Errol can fly a chopper after
dark!"
By this time, Errol had already put his own ear close to Drews receiver, and had
listened in on most of the exchange. He grinned and yelled down Drews mouthpiece,
Oh yes, ! nav, buddy! An !ve got a goddamn IIns and I!I/Ia! to prove it, too!
Unlike sm moonlighting pilots ! could name!"
Bobs good-natured laughter rang tinnily back. well, get back up here before dark,
or )uII be a bloody moonlightin pilot )uIsI/, mate! Over and Out!" Then he clicked off
his receiver.
Thank God, all thats over!" sighed Drew. ! thought we were going to spend the
afternoon in idle chitchat - instead of getting back to the ]ob at hand!"
He glanced at his watch in the light of his helmet lamps. Nearly one oclock -
hmmm! We need to be up top by, say, around four-thirty, tops. So weve got three hours
or so to check out a bit more of that sloping passage. Anyhow, if youve finished gorging
yourself on those bully sandwiches, ! vote we get going!" And with that, he picked up his
compass and a coiled safety-line hed asked Bob to release down the shaft, and they both
set off toward the pit, with Errol bringing up the new roll of fluorescent tape.
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Before they entered the mouth of the sloping tunnel, Drew hitched the safely-line
very securely around a solid knob of stone that protruded from the chamber wall. Then,
after sliding it though the rappelling friction-racks on his and Errols body harnesses, he
threw the rest of the coil down the steeply slanting, gaping black maw before them. At
first, the descent was fairly hair-raising as the slope seemed to become more marked as
they proceeded, but after a few minutes, they got used to the acute floor angle and the
going became easier.
To some extent, the stiffish breeze blowing into their faces, helped them to feel
more secure, even if only psychologically. But they were still greatly puzzled as to its
origin. However, the mental stress of concentration on what they were doing, and the
difficulty of maintaining a firm footing forbade them any unnecessary talk.
They had traveled beyond the end of the first roll of tape - which Errol was still
unrolling behind them, and which he had paused to connect to the beginning of the new
roll - when Drew, who was in the lead, suddenly came to a dead stop. WHOA1 he cried
hoarsely. Backing into Errol. Theres a sheer bloody drop ahead of us, and ! cant see a
damn thing with these bloody feeble headlamps! For Gods sake, dont come any further,
mate! Well have to get a far more powerful torch before we try going on!" He paused for
a moment while he recovered his mental poise. Then he told Errol hed almost repeated
the same trick hed done climbing down the vent - by planting his foot down on nothing
but thin air!
Ny flaming oath!" he gasped. Talk about Wa!n !na! FIIs! 5!p - 1!s a DI)
Dz)1 ! only ]ust realized in the nick of time, and pulled my foot back, other wise.!" He
left Errol to imagine for himself what might have followed.
However, Errol wasnt quite so easily put off. Listen, Drew," he said. ! got an idea!
! want you to lie flat on the floor beside the wall there, and ]am your right boot into a
crevice if you can, an your right hand, too if you can find a handgrip. ! ]ust wanna try
something."
Drew stared at him as if hed gone mad.
Trust me!" said Errol with more confidence than he really felt. Then when Drew
had reluctantly done as he asked, and got himself firmly set. Errol asked him to feed
back a couple of yards of spare rope through his harness-rack. The rest, of course, still
dangled down over the unseen brink ]ust ahead of them. Errol now having some spare
rope-space for free movement, then spread-eagled himself face down upon the chilly
sloping stone floor, and asked Drew to grab a firm hold of his right ankle.
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What the hell are you trying to do, you mad bastard!" cried Drew, in a voice hoarse
with stress, as Errol began to inch himself forward using his knees and elbows. Slide
headfirst over the bloody edge?" but Errol said nothing. His questing hands found a
sharp edge of rock and he very carefully eased himself forward until his head protruded
over the edge and he was able to look down, with the helmet lamps shedding their light
below him. He stared down for a while as his eyes adapted to the fairly pallid light cast by
the lamps. Then he sighed loudly, and Drew could feel through Errols ankle that he was
shuddering uncontrollably.
What 1s it, mate?" he cried, his imagination running riot.. What can you see down
there?" Whatever it was, it had surely put the wind right up poor old Errol!
Then Errol turned his face sideways in order to look back over his shoulder at Drew.
!t was then that Drew realized that Errol wasnt shuddering with fear or terror - he was
shaking with silent laughter! His face was one big red grin.
What the hells got into you, cobber!" Drew yelled, craning his face forward, from
his supine position, and thinking Errol was becoming hysterical. But after a second or two
of grinning back like a madman, Errol answered his startled friend.
Do you want the g news or the Da news?" he asked, still stifling his laughter.
And when Drew irascibly told him to ]ust give him the good news, he said: Well, the good
news is that the precipice is only around three feet deep! The whole section must have
faulted sometime, and got displaced a little!"
Drew now pulled himself up into a sitting position. Well, !ll be blowed!" he gasped
in astonishment. But whats the Da news, Errol?" He was still unsure of the situation.
He waited for Errol to reveal the hidden snag.
Errol put him swiftly out of his misery. The Da news, old buddy, is that we will
have to g! gIng again, now!"
Drew stood up and looked down over the edge. Errol was right, of course, there had
been a fault slip and the tunnel floor although slightly crumpled for the first few yards,
continued on, a yard lower, into the blackness. Errol scrambled forward and dropped
down into the new section, clutching his reel of orange tape, and grinned up at Drew.
Coming?" he asked.
But Drew paused for a reflective moment, looking down at his watch.. You realize,
mate, "he said, with a fiendish smile, that were going to have to IImD DaK up out of all
this again, in about an hours time? Otherwise, well be testing out your nIgn!-/I)Ing
aDIII!Is - with Bob doing some of his renowned DaK-sa! IIvIng right behind you!"
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This remark had the desired sobering effect on Errol, and wiped the smug grin off his face
instantly. Drew had hit him right on his Achilles Heel. The only thing that Errol really
feared was making a fool of himself!
Within twenty minutes or so, the wind-tunnel" as Drew had christened it, debouched
suddenly into a great echoing chamber, a huge cavernous amphitheatre roofed with stygian
blackness, that magnified every sound they made by at least fifty times and threw it
deafeningly back at them. Their combined helmet-lamps could only penetrate a few
dozen feet in any direction, and the only clue they had to its vastness was the astounding
echoes that reverberated from all sides when ever they made the slightest sound. !t was
clearly the end of the road, for them, as even another dozen steps would have left them
completely lost. Errol also pointed out to Drew that their second two-hundred yards of
tape was almost run out.
! guess this is the end of the trail for us, pardner!" he quipped in a creditable John
Wayne Texan accent. Ah reckon its time fer us to mosey on back to the ol corral!" Drew
nodded dully. The rest would have to wait till they returned, this time with the Professor
- hopefully. As they began the return ]ourney, he remarked to Errol that he hoped old
Din-Dins hadnt been overeating since theyd last seen him. The shaft should ]ust about
accommodate him as they remembered him, but any increase in girth would rule him out
of the event altogether!
Errol ]ust beat Drew to his next thought - the need for a far better light source.
Naybe theyd have to bring a portable generator and a floodlight with a very long cable!
Naybe two or three miles might see them on their way! !t occurred to Drew that what
they really needed was a team of bloody Sherpas to lug all the necessary gear down after
them. One thing was blindingly clear. Errol remarked that they definitely had to extend
their team to at least a dozen people - for starters - with relay-stations all along the way,
so that fresh supplies could be sent on down the line.
They soon came to the fault step, but negotiated it with relatively surprising ease.
Drew felt ashamed of his fit of the heeby-]eebies at this point earlier, but, he supposed, it
was all part of the learning-curve. The climb up the sloping section of the wind-tunnel
was quite fatiguing, and they resolved to make sure they brought plenty of candy-bars
with them next time! !t was surprising how fast one used up a ton of energy! Also they
were both extremely cold. Something else worth remembering!
!t was getting close to four in the afternoon by the time they got back to the bottom
of the vent-pipe, and Drew wasted no time calling Bob on the intercom to tell him that
they were back, and to get ready to haul them up. Bob was naturally delighted to hear
from him and told him everything was all set.
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Errol was the first to ascend. Drew tied the dangling rope to his harness with a
secure knot and then told Bob over the intercom to haul away. The rope tightened and
Errol slowly began to ascend into the rock chimney. Soon, drew could hear him exchang-
ing shouted pleasantries with Bob and Jimmy as he vanished up the tube. !t seemed only
a matter of minutes before the end of the rope, weighted with a small lump of rock came
rattling down again. And Drew wasted little time attaching the rope to his own harness.
Then he called Bob to haul away, and soon found himself being drawn up off his feet,
spinning slightly.
As he spun slowly around, on the rope, and before his head entered the chimney,
he though he saw something flitting briefly across the passage - ]ust at the limit of the
dimming light of his electric head-lamp. What the hell was !na!? He thought. !t must
have been a shadow caused by his revolving lamp - or maybe an animal of some kind?
Then he was up inside the vent tube and whatever hes seen - or !nugn! hed seen - was
history. His focus now was getting up out of this benighted place, and back into Gods
good fresh, warm air!
Within minutes, he was rising from the hole like Dracula from the grave, and Bob
grabbed him by the harness to pull him on to terra firma. By the time Drew had unfas-
tened the rope, Errol was already peeling off his Lycra wetsuit, over by the tent, and
Jimmy was starting to unshackle the block and tackle. The searing heat of the late
afternoon hit Drew like a physical blow as he began to divest himself of his own wetsuit.
He smiled to himself wryly. Only a few minutes ago theyd both been complaining about
the dank chill of the tunnels! As he was rolling up the wetsuit, Bob came over and asked
him how it had all gone. !ll tell you later, mate!" said Drew, After weve had some
decent tucker and a nice cold beer!"
When they all awoke the next morning, the sky was a little cloudy, and, although it
didnt appear to be threatening any immediate rain, at least it made the temperature
much more bearable outside. The homestead had long ago been air-conditioned by a
fine ducting system in the ceiling for the benefit of Alasdair, who had been accustomed to
such luxuriant comforts in his Home and office in Sydney.
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Whilst he`d been as hardy as the next man when it came to bearing up to the
tropical heat of Central Queensland, Alasdair had seen no reason to tolerate the sweaty
discomfort most locals philosophically accepted as part of their lot as outback dwellers,
when he managed to escape from his onerous duties. Sitting manacled to his plush
leather-topped desk by an incessantly-ringing telephone, in his seventeenth floor luxuri-
ously-appointed prison-cell" office, wasn! the sinecure many ordinary workers believed it
to be.
Not that Bob and Joan had raised the slightest ob]ection when a couple of refrigera-
tion engineers arrived from Brisbane to install the system. Though Bob had often
claimed in the past that air-conditioning was strictly for waK I!) p/!Is, he now
wondered how the hell theyd ever survived without it! Drew was constantly being
roared at by Joan for sleeping with his bedroom window wide open at night - even though
it was Clanranald Corporation who footed the power-bill. She was ]ust naturally thrifty,
being born of an old Queensland farming family whod usually barely scraped by, living
from one long-awaited wool or livestock cheque to another.
Drew arose early, and, after a quick shower, he brewed himself a cup of strong
coffee and went out onto the verandah clad only in his ]eans, to sit and watch the muted
sunrise behind the gold-rimmed clouds. The cool wind blew in fresh off the desert
country, and he en]oyed its chill caress as it fanned over his bronzed torso. This was the
time of day that he liked to sit back and think. After a deep and dreamless sleep, his mind
was renewed and sharpened. He mentally reviewed all the planned activities of the day
ahead.
!t was now nearly five a.m. and Errol, who had already risen, showered and had a
light breakfast, was getting ready to fly the chopper down to Brisbane and collect the
Professor, so hed be away for most of the day. Din-Dins plane got in at around nine a.m.,
so, allowing for Customs and so forth, they would be heading back around eleven. Always
hoping, of course, that the old greedy-guts didnt want a proper, /uII 5!!Isn breakfast
before leaving! Hed no doubt have a few choice words to say about the in-flight meals!
At least hed be here in heaps of time for the evening meal at around five p.m.!
Their trip back from Undara the previous evening had been much faster than the
flight out. Theyd decided to leave most of their heavier gear at the site, inside the
zipped-up tent. There was very little chance of anyone stealing anything, as the area was
totally deserted at night, being so far away from the Tourist Center. They hadnt needed
to fill up the choppers tank, as Errol would do that at Longreach Airport on his way down
to Brisbane. !t had certainly been a very promising day yesterday, and they looked
forward with eagerness to hear the Professors input as to what might or mIgn! n! lie
beneath the volcano. !t certainly wasnt blocked solid with solidified lava - which was one
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of the things that had rather worried them previously.
Errol and he had discussed this at length last evening and had decided that some-
how, the main body of solidified lave had fallen away from the vent plug, in some much
later violent convulsion of the earth. Theyd figured out that this may well have opened up
many other clefts and shafts that uI conceivable open up the way far down beneath
the volcano.
They had also further contemplated the need for mI nans ! !n pumps by way
of some sort of relay-team which could follow then up with supplies, rappelling ropes, and
so forth, as well as food, fresh batteries, and most important of all, moral support!
!n view of this, and the fact that they already had a fairly easy access well under the
edge of the dormant volcano (Iman! Daus n vIan an vI gnuInI) D saI
! D x!In!1}. They were now ]ust about ready to call the two girls into the expedition.
They would discuss that with dear old Din-Dins this very evening - I/ he wasnt too ]et-
lagged!
Errol had said: We mustnt expect the poor old guy to be all full of bounce and zing,
Drew! Hell have had a fairly grueling trip for a guy of his advanced years, remember!"
Drew did remember! !t had taken days for his brain to catch up with him, and his body-
clock" had been out of whack for almost a week when he himself had returned from
Scotland. However, he also realized for the first time that the Professor, at fifty, wasnt
aII !na! mun older than Bob - and Bob still had plenty of life and stamina!
As he sat mulling these things over, he heard the fly-screen door creak open and
slam shut again as Errol issued forth looking very sharp in a nice clean shirt and slacks,
with snow white tennis shoes! He even wore a rather smart gold and white necktie!
Drew gave him a mock wolf-whistle. Ww!" he shouted. Sure youre not picking up
some nice little dolly-bird in Longreach, mate? Whats with all the flash-clobber? Want to
make a big impression with the old Prof, ! suppose, eh? Teachers bloody Pet - as always!"
Errol ]ust grinned back, and pulled down his up-tilted sunglasses, making his white flash-
ing teeth look even whiter.
Ok! Buddy! So ! like to look a tad neat occasionally? Wouldnt do )u any harm
once in a while, Bro, instead of sitting there half buck-naked - an in DaI /!, too! ! can
smell èm from here! Pnwww1 " Then as Drew began to remonstrate, he added : Yeah!
! heard you running the shower, buddy..but were you unI it?"
Drew looked around for something to throw, but Errol was already darting off to-
ward the waiting helicopter, laughing as he went. See you !mIIw, maybe, Drew!" he
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called back mockingly over his shoulder, with a cheery wave of his hand ! mustnt be late
getting down to Longreach - or snII think ! stood nI up! Bye!"
Drew leaned on the verandah rail watching as Errol started the engine and the
rotors began slowly whirling and threshing, steadily picking up revolutions as Errol checked
out and ad]usted the controls. Then with another quick wave of the hand and a big final
Thumbs-Up", he gunned the engine to full pitch, and it quickly rose up into the air.
As Drew watched, the helicopter began swooping forward, ]ust as Joan came out of
the house with the Charlie and his two sisters, to wave Errol a belated Hooroo!". Hes
off, then?" she said worriedly. Oh! ! do hope hell be careful, Drew! He seemed a bit too
excited to me, to go flying off in that thing!"
You dont need to worry about old Errol, Num." said Drew. Hes not lacking in
brains - or blooming gu!s, either.!" He nearly blurted out to her then about their
escapade with the sudden tunnel drop-off, the day before, but he stopped himself in the
nick of time. !nstead he wisely decided that what doting mothers - even pIx) ones -
didnt know, they wouldnt fret about. His Num had already taken Errol fondly under her
matronly wing as one of her own little brood of chicks - albeit another rather oversize
one!
As the chopper dwindled in size and noise toward the southeast, Drew followed
them all indoors, and sat to the table whilst Joan prepared his breakfast. Well, Num, "he
said, conversationally, youll have another guest to feed tonight, so ! hope youve stocked
up big on the haggis, kippers and porridge! Hes a 5!sman, you know, and !n) really
Iv their tucker!"
Och, Aye!" chimed in Bobs voice suddenly, as he stepped in through the back
doorway, after checking up on the horses, and having ]ust caught the tail-end of the
conversation. An that reminds me! !d better hide me bottle of bloody GIn FIIn!
Them bloody Scotchmen love their w DI) Iam, too!"
Yes! And not only 5!smn, either!" put in Joan, pointing a critical fry pan spatula
at Bobs carefully nurtured little potbelly. You didnt get that beer-gut from drinking cups
of tea, love!" this aroused great merriment from their youngsters.
Then she continued weaving her amazing spell of kitchen-magic, filling the large
kitchen with the delicious aroma of sausages, bacon and eggs, plus fried bubble and
squeak. They were soon all far too deeply engaged in tucking away a magnificent break-
fast to waste a second of the mealtime in idle chatter.
After the meal, Drew went into his room and switched on his computer. There was
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mail. Apart from the daily digests of messages on his two principal group lists, there were
messages from their female friends, Narianne and Hazel.
Both of them expressing delight at the prospect of ]oining Errol and himself on the
proposed expedition. Had they done a recce yet of the tube? !f so, did the route look
promising?" asked Narianne. Please keep in close touch, and as soon as he had any
indication that it might be negotiable for any distance underground. `Please, PLA5, let
her know, and shed be on the next available flight out of vancouver!
Shed been in touch with Hazel, regarding his earlier message and they were both
prepared to sleep in a barn if need be, ]ust as long as they could be In n !n gIun
/II1 with the expedition. This was ]ust what Drew had been hoping for, especially after
his discussion with Errol the previous night.
Hazels message was almost a carbon-copy of Nariannes. She was equally, if not
even more, keen to get in among the action, and also had no reservations about where
she was accommodated, ]ust as long as Drew and Errol were dinkum about going right
through with the pro]ect! She had all the experience necessary in caving and climbing, so
she was ready at the drop of a hat.
Shed already made a few inquiries regarding flights to Brisbane, which fortunately
at this early part of the season, were fairly lightly booked. She was patiently awaiting the
call, and had organized with her folks to take the time off. !n any case, they were used
to her globe-trotting, so a little hop across the Tasman wasnt any worry to them. Espe-
cially since shed taught them to use her computer, and could email them anytime and
they her. Shed concluded her message with: Pa) wnn )u aI, /IIIs - Jus! sa) !n
wI1 xI!I) )uIs, HazI
Drew was like a dog with two tails that they were so enthusiastic, and he had to
struggle hard with himself not to reply at once telling them to grab the next available
flight. But he must send them sm sort of acknowledgment! Then an idea struck him,
one that would get the show on the road anyhow, but allow Errol and himself a bit of time
to get the Professor settled in before they arrived.
He first emailed Hazel with the suggestion that he would book an airline flight for
Narianne from vancouver to Auckland, and that she should contact Narianne regarding
her ETA there, and let her stay with her for a couple of days until he sent for them both
to fly over !g!nI from New Zealand. That way, they would both be close to hand, and
would also have a little time to get personally acquainted. Also, it would make enor-
mously better logistical sense if he could bring them both up to Longreach in one single
trip from Brisbane, via a local Queensland bush airline! Then he emailed Narianne with
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a basically similar message, telling her to mail him straight back with the flight-details
from vancouver to Auckland so he could contact the airlines branch in Brisbane and pay
for her fare by AmEx.
He felt rather pleased with himself that hed thought of this arrangement, and wasted
no time sending off the replies. After this, he sat and racked his brains for anything else
he might have overlooked. There were so many bits and pieces hed thought of while
theyd been underground. The need for more lightweight rope, for a start - plus as many
AA torch-batteries as they could carry upon their persons! Good God! They would need
to tote thousands of them on a ]ourney such as they were contemplating! How else could
they get supplies of the smaller items like batteries, candy-bars, maybe even matches and
candles as a back-up lighting system?
Drew had a sudden blinding flash of inspiration! How about if they used a very
flexible !uD - something like a bicycle inner tube, but miles and miles long - and let their
back-up party simply sII such small ob]ects down to them as needed! After all, it would
all be basically downhill, so it should work quite easily by pure gravity alone! !t would take
a lot of dead weight off their backs. But the only problem was where the hell would one
g! nI of such a length of flexible tubing? Sections of air-hose from a deep-sea diving
supply outfit? Naybe the support group could ]oint it on In s!Ins as they descended
steadily further?
Then it occurred to him that such flexible lightweight hose would surely also be used
in mines for air-supply and water. `Thats it! he thought. `!ll give Doug Edwards a yell!
After all, he runs naI/ a zn assorted coal and mineral mines!
He sat there for a few minutes more pondering the idea, his mind seething with
further elaborations on it. What about the IvI areas where the tube would ]ust lie /Ia!?
How could you keep things moving along then? Naybe a deep-sea divers mpIss
aII-pump at the input-end, and some way of tightly napsuIa!Ing the items - like a bullet
in a rifle-barrel - for the air to push them along. `Yeah! Thats the answI, Drew old son!
he thought, brightly, `Wa) ! DI) g1 But then it occurred to him that there was the
possibility of the pipe getting trapped around a corner, or - worse still - under a minor rock
fall! He sat for half an hour furiously thinking in this seesaw fashion, until he finally
sprang to his feet shaking his head vigorously, as if ridding himself of some pestering fly.
Come n, Drew, mate, get a DI) gIIp!" He must have shouted this last remark out
loud, for Joan poked her worried face around his door and asked him if he was all right.
Yeah, no worries, Num! ! was ]ust talking things over with myself! " He grinned at
her with a cheery humour he didnt really feel.
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Hmmmmm!" she said shaking her head dubiously, They lock people away for that,
you know!" Then she went on, ! was ]ust coming to shout you for your lunch - maybe
youd be better off talking to Bob than yourself!"
After a pleasant and plentiful lunch, plus a cheerful yarn with Bob and Joan, Drew
decided to go for a ride to loosen up his mind and shake down the meal. He had no
particular ob]ective in mind so he gave Daemon his head. Once again, his fathers mount
took him at a brisk canter straight out to the ]agged outcrop where the caves lay. !t was as
if the horse was obeying some inner command. Once again. Drew dismounted and went
for a stroll around the lowering red rocks. Somehow, he found himself standing staring
down that same dark passage that he and Errol had so recently explored. But without a
torch, he had no intention of setting foot inside it. As he stared in curious fascination at the
black gap before him, he noticed something unusual. He could faintly discern a darkish
ob]ect lying ]ust within the entrance, upon the cave floor. With its dark protrusions, it
looked at once strangely familiar but outlandish. He edged down the narrow gap in the
rocks to get a closer look. Then as he stuck his head inside the gloomy portal, he
suddenly realized what it was.
!t was a steers head! He drew back in cold dread with a sharp intake of breath, as
a small cloud of blowflies arose from the heads eyeless sockets and out of its gaping,
tongueless mouth! There was no sign of its body, nor had the head been neatly severed
by some cattle-duffer. !nstead, there was a ragged fringe of chewed hide and a tangle of
torn windpipe and sinews where its neck should have been. As far as he could tell, the
poor creatures head had been literally !In off its body!
As his horrified eyes ad]usted better to the gloom within the cave entrance, he was
able to see a dark stain in the sand, trailing backwards into the black depths. !t was
blood, and it meant that the animal had somehow been dragged backwards into the cave
by something large and powerful. He had automatically thought of dingoes, but he had
never seen any dingoes with the sort of brute force that could pull a live steer backward
into a hole and literally !aI its head off its body!
But he na heard wild tales bandied around among some of the drunks in the
Winton pub, claiming that there were big cats - panthers or leopards or something -
roaming the outback. They were said to be the descendants of big cats" that had es-
caped from a large lion-park near Brisbane, years before. Bob had dismissed this as a
ridiculous furphy, but Drew saw no reason why such a thing couldnt actually have hap-
pened.
Australia was fast becoming overrun with a whole array of assorted alien wildlife -
such as wild pigs, water-buffaloes, goats, camels, and llamas - not to mention packs of
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now-feral dogs, and house-cats that had been dumped and gone wild. They were all
playing havoc with the natural native wildlife of Australia, which, apart from the odd dingo
or two, had virtually no natural predators. Other than Nan, of course! The native aborigi-
nes only killed what they needed to eat to survive. But it was the big macho" city-bred
white Australian bully-boys, out for a bit of weekend fun with rifles and booze, in their
four-wheel drives equipped with blinding searchlights, who were the greatest human
menace to the gentle and harmless native fauna of the outback.
However, Drew dismissed all these flitting thoughts from his mind, and peered fur-
ther into the caverns interior. Now his eyes had fully ad]usted, he could see the tracks of
blood trailing away into the darkness, and here and there he could ]ust discern lumps and
gobbets of viscera and bloody hide, lying like trail-markers, leading back into the stygian
gloom.
Obviously, whatever had killed the steer must right now be crouching over its re-
mains back in there - probably watching him IIgn! !nn, as he stood silhouetted against
the sunlit sky! He hastily reversed out of the narrow defile, half-expecting to hear a
padding of paws and a ferocious roar as the big cat leapt up towards his unprotected back!
Within seconds he was back at the cave where Daemon awaited him. The big horse
at once seemed to sense his fear, and perhaps even scented the bloody aroma of the
slaughtered steer about him, for he had a difficult ]ob wrangling with the big rearing
stallion. But he finally managed to get up into the saddle and, without further ado, set
Daemon off at a fast gallop homeward. At a safe distance, he risked a glance backwards,
but there was nothing following them. He slowed Daemon to a gentle trot and pondered
heavily upon what he had ]ust seen, and how he should report this frightful business to
Bob.
As he rode back toward the homestead, Drew experienced a sudden, unbidden
mental flashback - no doubt generated by this recent gruesome discovery and its associ-
ated thoughts and fears - of that strange something" which he had caught such a fleet-
ing glimpse as Bob and Jimmy hauled him up the fumarole. !t now came up on the
monitor of inner eye as a blurred image. A minute file on the hard-drive of his mind,
clicked upon by some random thought. Not of anything very clear or distinct, but of
something vaguely pallid and humanoid in form, caught by his moving helmet lamp-beam
flitting as swiftly as thought itself between the gloomy rocks of the underground gallery!
He shrugged himself free of these dark thoughts, and looked up forward toward the
distant humped shape of the homestead nestled among its huge fig trees. !t was still a
couple of miles away, but he could ]ust make out the flickering glint of a tiny ob]ect moving
in the sky above it. Was it an eagle, hovering in search of a rabbit or rat? He stopped
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Daemon in his tracks and leaned forward to stare more closely. No, by Jingo! !t was the
chopper! Errol had ]ust returned from Brisbane with his long-awaited cargo! The dear
old Professor had finally arrived!
G!DDAPP, you lazy bastard!" he yelled sharply at Daemon, and the great stallion
reared up on his hind legs, whinnied as if protesting at the unwarranted insult, then shot
away with him at a thundering gallop toward Glengarry.
Within minutes, Drew had rounded the big shed into the home yard, where the
chopper sat, its rotors still slowly winding down. A knot of people were mounting the
steps to the back verandah, and amid them, he saw the large, bulky figure he had known
so well back in Edinburgh.
Errol glancing back ]ust as Drew rode in and grabbed the Professors arm. The
Professor turned his great shaggy head, and seeing Drew, his bespectacled and bearded
features lit up in a brilliant beaming smile.
Drew barely had time to dismount from Daemon before the professor had dropped
his Qantas airline bag, and hurried back down the steps to meet him. Errol followed him
grinning from ear to ear, and taking the reins from Drew, led Daemon away to the big
shed.
Och, Andrew, mah bonnie wee laddie!" cried the delighted scholar, with his twin-
kling blue eyes dewed with tears of ]oy. Nan! Ye `re lookin verra weel - and ye seem to
have filled oot, an all! Just look at the size of ye! You and yon Harold are like twa peas in
a pod - and gIan!s, tae boot!" He grabbed Drew in a lung-crushing bear hug, for the
professor was no midget himself. Nor was he exactly a lightweight either. Then he held
Drew by the shoulders away from himself at arms length. Nan! Ye Canna ken the guid
it does mah old hart tae see ye again! And a Canna tell ye ]ust how Ahm indebted tae ye
for fetchin a crankie auld sod such as mahself on such a splaindid hooliday!"
Drew, who was totally bowled over by the sheer enthusiasm of the professors over-
whelming greeting, grinned delightedly and tried to pooh-pooh his generosity in bringing
old Did-Dins out for a hopefully-protracted overseas trip. !ts really terrific to see you
again, sir!" he smiled, not entirely untearful himself. and might ! say that youre looking
very well yourself, after such a long, wearying flight!" Then he laughed aloud. But you
have to remember, sir, that you brought it all on yourself, by rubbishing Errol and ! about
looking for the !nner Earth!"
The professor grinned back at him craftily. Weel, now, Andrew! Ah dinna feel sae
bad after yonder grand aeroplane ride! !t was a sheer plaisure and a verra weelcome rest
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after a bluidy haird tairm and Ah slept like a wee babby most of the time! This last lot o
graduates were nae easier than yer ain gaggle of idiots! Aye! An there was a fair
sprinklinof Hollow Airth" loons among them, too! Ah dinna know if mebbe ah shouldna
have include a series of laictures on the sub]aict, maself, after all that Ahve lairnt from
fellers such as yerself and yon Harold!"
Drew could not resist correcting the dear old fellow. Errol, sir, ErroI - n! Harold"!"
he said with a saintly smile.
Din-Dins stared at him incredulously. Dye mean as in Errol FI)nn7"" he asked,
flabbergasted. Weel, Ahll be damned! An heres mahsailf been callin Harold Harold"
all these bluidy years! Ahll have tae apologize tae him! Where in the name o Thunder Is
Harold, anyhoo? He was here ainly a wee moment ago.."
Drew threw out his open hands sideways in surrender. The old codger was totally
incorrigible. !t looked like Errol was going to remain HaII for the duration! Hell be
with us in a moment. Hes ]ust seeing to my horse for me! But lets get up to the house,
sir, instead of frying out here in the sun!"
The professor allowed himself to be led up the verandah steps, then he paused for
a moment, and grasping Drew by a bulging brown bicep, he said: Och, aye! And that
reminds me! Whilst were on the sub]aict onames - mah own name is Chairles" as in the
Bonnie Prince! Ahd be obleeged tae ye if yed drop the 5aII if ye dont mind, Andrew,
Ahm no yer tutor any more! The same applies tae Harold - er - III! Ahve taught ye
both all Ah know, an still ye know naithing!" Then he laughed uproariously at his own pet
]oke.
At that point in the proceedings, Errol came bounding up the steps behind them.
Sorry, about that Professor!" he grinned. Then to Drew, he added Whats going down,
bro? Did ! ]ust miss something funny?"
Drew gave him a long keen look and rolled up his eyes in mock despair.
!ndoors, Joan and Bob welcomed the professor into their home, and then took him
off to the bedroom hed been allocated, whilst Drew and Errol followed carrying his collec-
tion of suitcases from the helicopter. good ]ob ! didnt come with you, mate!" said Drew,
s! v, There wouldnt have been any bloody room for me with this lot!" Errol
nodded his agreement. Hed had the unenviable task of lugging it all over on a trolley to
where the chopper had been parked on the Helipad at Brisbane Airport.
Once ensconced in his room, after being shown the location of the bathroom en
route, the professor was left to unpack his vast array of gear and freshen up after his long
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trip. The others returned to the big kitchen where Joan had prepared the afternoon
Smoko", which, in honor of their august guest, was today more of a lavish banquet.
Smoked salmon sammos?" gasped Bob, in astonishment. Hey, Joan, hes only a
bloody schoolmaster you know - not bloody P)aI!)!"
But Joan simply ignored her husband and his rough peasant-like attitude. She
herself had been brought up to a far more civilized station in life and had learned all the
rules of correct etiquette in a boarding school FI !n Daugn!Is / Cun!I) Gn!I/IK
somewhere close to Toowoomba in the southeast of the state. At least until her parents
fell upon hard times and she had to go home and help out on their farm.
!t was about twenty minutes later that the great man appeared in the doorway,
freshly showered, and clad in a large yellow tee-shirt embellished with a rampant Scottish
lion, blue walk-shorts and navy-blue plimsolls over white ankle socks. As he appeared,
the cool conditioned air became suddenly redolent with a combination of roll-on deodor-
ant, hair-shampoo and spray-on insect-repellent.
Ah thought ahd better wear the appropriate garb for my fairst encounter wi the
tropics!" he greeted them all affably. ! understood frae yer messages, Drew, that mah
tweeds wouldna do in this heat! So Ahve only braucht some light clothing!"
Drew, Joan and Bob gaped at this colourful apparition in patent disbelief as he
walked into the room. He resembled a walking carnival. But Errol simply heaved a great
sigh. He was wondering what else was in the old guys luggage, if hed only brought
summery clothes. The cases had weighed a ton!
Joan invited Din-Dins to sit down and have a cup of tea and a bite to eat. You must
be famished after that long flight, Professor!" she said sympathetically. ! hope they gave
you something to eat on the way?"
Och, Aye! They kept on waking me up aboot every quarter hour a the way over, wi
wee trays o twinkie bairns food, and piddlin drinks of fruit-]uice! Ah was fair stairvin tae
deith by the time we got tae Brisbane, an thats the truith, maam! Thank God, yon wee
mannie," here he indicated Errol, who sat with his face buried in his hands, and his shoul-
ders visibly shaking, had the guid sense tae tak me for a decent meal before we left the
airport! Else, Ah wouldna be here tae tell the tale!"
All the time the professor was holding forth about the airline-food, he was industri-
ously demolishing a great plateful of smoked-salmon sandwiches, alternating each one
with a gulp of scalding tea from Bobs very own favorite and sacrosanct pint- mug (which
he had picked up in error), as well as liberally showering his audience with moist bread
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crumbs. Even the children, who had been specially allowed to ]oin them at the great
table, gazed in awestricken fascination at this great bearded eating-machine! To them he
was a red-faced ogre who spoke in a weirdly-outlandish accent, and accompanied every
word with a wildly-sweeping gesture of his great hairy hands. Drew and Errol were now
steadily losing the fight to control their mirth, particularly at the thunderous frown that
creased Bobs brow every time Din-Dins took another noisy slurp from his beloved mug!
Joan left the table to hurriedly cut some more smoked-salmon sandwiches. Her face was
a veritable picture of frozen horror at the sheer greed this alleged pillar of civilized wisdom
was displaying. The others had hardly eaten a thing!
Drew pushed back his chair and rose to his feet, muttering something about `helping
Num with the tucker. As he bent beside Joan to place the fresh sandwiches on a plate, he
murmured quietly in her ear: Now you see why we call him Din-Dins", Num! Eatings his
favorite pastime!"
She looked up at him then, her previous frosty glare replaced with a roguish grin,
and whispered, ! do hope hes not like this aII the time! And hes got Bobs tea-mug, too!"
Drew who had a pacifying hand on her shoulder felt her body shaking with pent-up laugh-
ter. He glanced round at Errol who had managed to dummy up his expression like a
constipated owl as he stiffly watched Bob trying to yarn with the professor in his usual
easygoing way. So waddaya reckon of Aussie, then, eh, from what youve seen of it so
far, mate .." Bob was saying to the still-gormandizing don, his face a mask of stony
amazement.
Drew realized that he had to do something to rescue the situation.
Hey, Errol!" he called, urgently pointing out through the kitchen window. Some of
the hands are messing around the chopper.!" Then he headed for the back door with
Errol following rapidly on his heels. Once safely outside and around the corner of the
verandah, they leaned against the wall and burst into gales of laughter.
Errol was the first to recover his powers of coherent speech. Holy Toledo!" he
gasped," The old guy hasnt changed one single iota! Didya see the way he was packing
away the grub! Wadding out his cheek-pouches like a starving chipmunk! Hes still the
same old Din-Dins, thats for goddamn sure!" Tears of laughter rolled down his cheeks.
Yeah!" choked Drew, between snorts of merriment. And did you see old Bob tryin
to keep a poker face while he watched all that bloody smoked salmon vanishing into the
gaping maw! Holy Hell! !t was so bloody funny!" They both had to give way again to the
paroxysms of laughter theyd been bottling up.
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However, eventually they sobered up enough to ponder the problem of Din- Dins
quite unwitting bad table manners. !t couldnt be allowed to continue or either Joan or
Bob would give the rough side of their tongues, and the touchy old professor would
probably be off like a shot on the next flight home. Drew finally came up with a reason-
able solution.
Look" he said seriously. Why dont ! get Joan to serve him his meals in his room -
you know - like giving him the Royal" treatment? That way he wont make such an
exhibition of himself or get up anyones noses? What dyou reckon, Erb?"
Sounds fair enough to me!" said Errol. After all hes not going to be around the
homestead for long is he? Hopefully, hell be out at Undara with us underground in a day
or two, so the pressure will be your Num. ! know she doesnt like bad mannered people,
and one can hardly describe Din-Dins as a brilliant socialite!"
Drew nodded his assent. Yeah! Youre right, mate!" he agreed. Well ]ust have to
try and keep him out of Nums way, as much as possible while hes around the homestead.
!n the meantime !ll have a quiet word with Bob! Dont want any bloody domestic upheav-
als at this stage, do we?"
Just at that point, Bob appeared around the side of the house. What happened,
fellers?" he asked. Who was hangin around the chopper? !ll.. "
!ts OK, Bob!" said Drew quickly. We ]ust had to get out of there for a minute or
two! Wed forgotten what a rough and ready old bird the Prof was at the table..Sorry
about all that, Bob! But now you know why we call him DIn-DIns1"
Bob grinned good-naturedly. Dont worry about it, Drew! He ]ust ended up spilling
his tea all over the bloody table and ! left Joan giving him the bollocking off his bloody life!
He was practically crawlin on the bloody floor beggin her forgiveness.. An ! had to
escape before ! bloody cracked up laughing!" He gave them both a big grin. Hes
certainly a bloody character an a half, all right! Still theres somethin likeable about the
bastard - in spite of his poofy taste in clobber!"
They leaned there in a row for a minute or two, each smiling to himself, at the
professors disastrous first impression. Then Drew suddenly remembered the strange
incident of the steers head in the outcrop cave. He quickly told Bob and Errol the full
story, and would up airing his feelings regarding the Big Cat" theory that was going the
rounds. !t was definitely a bloody weird situation!" he concluded, as they heard him out
in silence, And to be quite honest, ! felt pretty windy myself, when ! thought what might
be lurking down there! So in the end ! ]ust shot through and left it strictly alone!"
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Bob stood scratching his chin and frowning in puzzlement. Yair, !ve heard that
same yarn meself, Drew. But ! reckoned it was a load of garbage. Tell you what! !ll get
some of the fellers together and go down there with torches an a couple of rifles. see
whats goin on, right? You dont need to come. Youd be better off up here talkin to your
professor mate! ! reckon hell be needin a bit of moral support about now! No. Just leave
this to me, fellers..1II get to the bottom of it. !ts not the first bloody time weve had
stock slaughtered like this. Could ]ust be feral dogs, you know!" Then he left them and
went to rustle up some of the men and a gun or two.
Back indoors, and feeling much more sober, the two friends went in search of the
Professor. As they passed his bedroom door they found him sitting gloomily on the edge
of his bed in a fit of depression. He reacted rather churlishly to their first approach by
getting up and standing looking out of the window with is back to them.
!f theres one thing Ah canna stand, its a shrewish bluidy woman." he muttered.
All Ah did, was tae accidentally catch mah hand on the edge of mah cup, and that was it!
Ahve never benn scolded sae much or sae roondly since Ah was a wee bairn, an thats a
bluidy fact! Drew, Ah ken thats yer Nam oot there, but.."
Not to worry, Professor!" put in Drew quickly, before the professor had a chance to
say something regrettable about Joan. She was only treating you like all the rest of us!
We all get roared at if we do anything stupid. Shes ]ust showing you that your already
part of the family in her own way, thats all! Dont worry about it! Even Errols had a few
prize rollockings since he came, havent you mate?" Here he winked heavily at Errol, who
nan!, and uIn! do any wrong in her sight.
Eh? Oh yeah! PIgn!!" Errol replied hurriedly. Happens all the goddamn time, old
Prof! But ! guess thats the Female of the Species for you! You ]ust accept it as such and
move right along!" This seemed to mollify the professor, and at last he turned back
toward them with the well-remembered old flinty gleam in his eye.
Aye, weel," he said, with a sigh, Ah suppose yer right, lads! Ah shouldna made
such a fool of maself, trying tae be ower familiar! Pairhaps we ought tae get doon to what
Ahm here for, anyhow, concairning this wee tunnel ye descovaired? Did ye say it was a
/umaII, Andrew? Ahve never haird of one that was big enough for a man tae climb
intae - espaicially a pair of great hulking lummocks such as yerselves! Are ye sure its not
Alices rabbit-hole tae Wonderland that yeve stumbled across?"
Drew grinned and winked at Errol, who beamed happily back. This was the Dinwiddie
of old, whom theyd both come to respect and admire! Cynical, ebullient and full of witty,
barbed sarcasm!
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Oh, aye! An that reminds me, the pair of ye!" added the professor, as an after-
thought.. When Ah told tae call me CnaIII, Ah man! it! After all, were no tutor an
students, any more, are we? So Ahd be greatly obliged if yed be a wee bit less formal wi
me, in future. Dye ken mah meaning?"
At once Errol stepped forward with an outstretched hand. Be my pleasure, Prof -
er, sorry - er - CnaIII!" Drew followed suit and did the same, then they all stood around
grinning like fools, in a red-faced silence, wondering what to say next.
Finally, it was Drew who broke it, by mentioning the two young women who were to
]oin them in their quest.
Charlie" was a little taken aback by this. Being something of a misogynist, he was
very wary of intellectual females, despite the fact that he himself had been so instrumen-
tal in helping many of their gender to achieve their diplomas in geology and geophysics,
and to go out into the world as successful field researchers.
The fact that they were also HIIw aI!n enthusiasts did little to dispel his un-
ease. However, since this was Andrews show, he would have to make the best of it all. !n
any event, he was only here in an advisory capacity to help them with the geophysical
aspects of their undertaking - and, of course, as a /uII)-quaII/I wI!nss to their success
or failure. (Of which, he felt sadly, the Ia!!I would be by far the likelier outcome!) Not
that he actually wan! them to fail!
Charlie Dinwiddie was one of those rare birds in the scientific community who was
always ready to accept any new and clearly-verifiable discoveries in his chosen field of
science, and to include them in his lectures forthwith. Despite his faade of mockery and
cynicism toward newly-conceived but unproven theories, he was nevertheless a dedicated
seeker after sIn!I/I !Iu!n.
He was painfully aware that most modern science was founded insecurely upon
hoary old theories. Theories which some so-called snIaIs had miraculously trans-
muted into rock-hard facts" by the simple stratagem of reiterating them over and over
until they eventually took root in their own minds and blossomed forth into obvious truths".
!t was this remarkable aspect of Professor Dinwiddies character that had so en-
deared him to them - and why he was now there with them, at the very start of their
great adventure of discovery. Alas, he little knew at that stage, exactly what he had let
himself in for by teaming up with Drew and Errol. Or to ]ust what astounding adventures,
privations and horrors his office as their Official Witness and Recorder" would eventually
carry him. Otherwise, he would have instantly fled homeward!
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They sat talking until around midday. Drew and Errol taking it in turns to fill in the
entire story of what had transpired thus far regarding their search and their inquiries.
They told Charlie of their discovery of a long chamber beneath the fumarole and of their
imagined narrow squeak" with the sudden drop-away, where the tunnel had been bro-
ken by a fault, and of the large, echoing chamber into which it had led them. This
information seemed to fascinate Charlie, as he had always understood that all one was
likely to encounter underneath a volcano - however long extinct - would be a downward
continuation of its central solidified lava-plug.
This in itself was something he was keen to see for himself. He felt that it might
conceivably be that the fault had created a means of access for underground water to
filter into the volcanos dead heart and begin its slow but steady, aeons-long work of
gouging out caverns and passages in the igneous basaltic and granitic rock of the plug. !t
would be interesting indeed to see such an unusual sight!
He had once been delighted to see some excellent color-slides of an extinct volcano
that had been split completely in two by such a tectonic upheaval, so that whilst one half
had been almost been totally broken down and eroded away, the other half had remained
virtually intact. Thus Nature had creating am excellent cross-section view not only through
its cone and its solid lava plug, but through many lesser solid lava-tubes and fumaroles
which had exited around its outer walls.
For all he, or any other expert, knew, this phenomenon they had discovered might
even be more the norm than the exception. However, the granite plug usually barred the
way to any exploration beneath an extinct or long-dormant volcano. Not, of course, to say
that there was necessarily any such thing as an x!In! volcano! They might go for many
thousands or even nunIs of thousands of years between eruptions, so that for all
intents and purposes, they had never erupted during the tenancy of intelligent life on the
Earth!
The big question one should always consider when contemplating fooling about
around upon or within a volcano, was this. How Ing ag has it been since its Ias! outburst,
as compared to how ImmInn! is its nx!! This would be a point they should bear in mind
if they decided to take the plunge and try to go down beneath the plug! Drew asked him
if they would be likely to strike a lake of still-molten lava under the plug of their volcano?
The professor was unsure of this, since its last outburst might conceivably have exhausted
any localized subterranean molten lava-reservoir completely - this was especially possible
in view of the enormously long lava-tubes at Undara, not to mention the vast lava-field
now become basaltic rock, that underlay all the rich surrounding savannah grasslands.
He had read all the available literature he could discover, both on the !nternet as
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well as in the geological textbooks on shield-volcanoes like Undara, and in the Hawaiian
!slands. !t was a vexing question, since shield-volcanoes were, by their very configura-
tion, more likely to empty their contents completely than would strata-volcanoes, or lava-
dome and cinder-cone types. However, there were no hard and fast rules" about this,
nor could there be. Homo Sapiens had simply not been around long enough to perceive
any regularity of eruptive cycles in any of them.
By this time, however, ]udging by his drooping eyelids and slurred speech, the pro-
fessor was clearly succumbing to ]et-lag, so the two decided to leave him to ]ust lie back
and sleep it off. He was already snoring heartily before they left his bedroom.
Joan was mildly relieved when they told her that their visitor was asleep and would
probably remain so till the next day. She was also very relieved to hear of his contrition
for his thoughtless greediness at her special morning Smoko".
She had apparently always kept a small supply of the expensive smoked salmon set
aside in the freezer-chest, for Alasdairs periodical, unannounced visits. !t had been a
particularly great favorite of his and, since she still had a stock left, she had thought it
would be like manna from Heaven to such an obviously highly-civilized personage as a
University Professor. Especially one from so august an educational establishment as
Edinburgh University - of which Drews own father, Alasdair, had so often spoken to her
proudly and fondly. Thus she had been appalled at the way in which the professor had
greedily gorged himself upon her daintily and delicately prepared sandwiches.
Drew carefully explained that the poor old chap had only been trying to show his
great appreciation of her efforts. But, having been offered totally alien food on the plane,
he had probably turned his nose up at it. He would rather have gone hungry for thirty
hours than eat such rubbish. !n addition, it was a fact that Scotsmen dearly loved salmon,
since most of their rivers were full of the fish, regarding it as one of their own unique
staple foods. Nost of what he said was pure flannel", but it was sufficient to put Joan at
her ease again - which was all that mattered. Drew then went in search of Errol.
He found him in his room, studying some of the large blowup maps and charts he
had brought with him. Errol looked up at him as he knocked then entered. Just having a
look at some of these other possible areas for a portal, buddy, ]ust in case Charlies right,
and we either run into a stone wall - or worse still fall into a lake of lava!. We never did
arrange for a contingency PIan B, did we?" He pointed at a large map of the Kimberley
region over in the extreme northwest of Western Australia. Now !nIs a place that
looks like it could hide a thousand portals - and no goddamn volcanoes to worry about,
either!"
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Drew leaned over Errols shoulder, and ran a finger over the map where all the many
inlets of the !ndian Ocean and the Timor Sea gouged into the Kimberleys coastline, and
then indicated all the deep seawater-eroded ravines, and the myriad watercourses that
crisscrossed the region. Tna!s why ! eventually had to rule it out, old mate!" he said.
The sea and all this other freshwater seems to make it pretty clear that wed have to
scuba-dive our way down through the upper crust at least! !ll bet you London to a brick
that most of the Kimberley has a high water-table underneath it. Thats why ! finally
settled on Undara! At least an old volcanic region like that is more likely to have long ago
blasted out its water-table as steam! The same thing goes for Nount Gambier down in
South Aussie, the old volcanic region seems to have been invaded underneath by the
Southern Ocean, so youd run into the same effect as in the Kimberley. As for the rest of
the main ancient slab of the continent, from Broome right across to the Great Dividing
Range - well a hell of a lot of its Archean and Protozoic Gondwana territory , so it will be
pretty solid! Thats why ! picked a fairly tectonic area, Errol, its more likely to be well
broken up down below - which will hopefully mean heaps of really deep caves and
tunnels for us!"
Hmmm.." mused Errol pensively. ! guess what you say makes geological sense,
but ! still feel we uI be going off half-cocked, buddy!" Then he yawned and stretched
his arms and neck boredly. Anyhow, Drew. !`ll be real glad when we get started in on
this! !ts all this goddamn hanging around thats getting to me! When are the girls coming
over? The sooner we get them over here the sooner well be able to get started! ! know
the old Prof -er - CnaIII - isnt exactly doing handsprings about them coming with us, but
maybe when he meets them he might have a change of heart!" then he thought a little
more. what do you think about old Chas, by the way, Drew? Dyou think hes up to it?
Pn)sIaII), ! mean?"
Drew grinned and recollected the giant rib-crushing bear hug hed received by way
of greeting from the professor, earlier that morning. He massaged his still-aching rib cage
thoughtfully. ! somehow n! think thats going to be a problem!" he smiled. ! reckon
he could still toss a pretty mean caber, if he wanted to!"
This latter comment referred to the fact that the professor had been in the habit of
entering the caber-tossing competition at the Braemar Highland Games - and had won it
on several occasions - well into his forties. And he still carried plenty of muscle under-
neath his moderate padding of body fat.
Yeah!" agreed Errol, Any guy who can throw electric light poles around ]ust for the
hell of it has got to be in pretty good shape, ! guess!"
! reckon hes as fit as a mallee bull, Errol!" laughed Drew. Hell probably need a
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few days to get himself back in trim, but ! think he might make us look like a pair of bloody
wimps later on!
Anyhow, old mate, ! think its about time we emailed the girls to come on over -
what do you reckon? Their carriage awaits them out there," he pointed through the
window at the sleek twenty-five foot trailer-van out on the side lawn, so ! dont see any
point in putting off the evil day any longer!"
Errol followed him Drew to his room and sat beside him as he clicked through to the
Outlook Express. Before opening out a New Nessage" panel, Drew made a quick check
through his mail. They were both surprised and delighted to see a new message from
Hazel waiting there among the various egroup-digests. She told them that Narianne had
decided not to wait any longer for Drews reply, and had gone ahead and taken the next
available flight to Auckland at her own expense. So she was there with Hazel nw, and
they had decided to head for Brisbane the following day. They would stay in a motel there
overnight and get onto a domestic flight to Longreach the next day. She would ring him
from Longreach Airport.
Drew anxiously checked the date and time of her message. !t had been sent early
the previous evening! They had obviously missed the message hed sent earlier that very
morning.
Wowee!" cried Errol, who had been reading the message over Drews shoulder.
That means theyre probably already in the air as we speak, buddy! They mustve gotten
tired of waiting! When do you reckon theyll get into Longreach?"
Blowed if ! know, mate," said Drew, but a least it wont be until sometime tomor-
row if theyre staying in Brisbane overnight. Anyhow, youll have to be ready to go and
fetch them in the chopper, as soon as they let us know theyve arrived!" He frowned,
then. Damn1 ! told Hazel !d be paying their fares by credit card! Still, ! can simply
reimburse them by cheque when they get here!"
You mean we D!n will, buddy!" insisted Errol. This Is going to be a fifty-fifty
operation, isnt it? ! guess we can tally it all up at the end and split the expenses two ways
- not that it really matters a damn! Aw, the hell with it, Drew, !m not keeping book!
An)!nIng1 Just so we GO!" Drew quietly grinned his agreement.
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The next morning the whole house was astir early. Professor Dinwiddie was up and
about - this time clad in a pair of light slacks, and a pullover, because of the still-lingering
night chill. He was halfway through a hearty breakfast with Bob, and two of the kids when
the two young giants entered the kitchen, and Joan was busy at the huge kitchen range,
ably assisted by her elder daughter, Karen, preparing a second-sitting breakfast for Drew
and Errol.
As they sat to the table, Bob looked up at Drew. ! was ]ust tellin old Chas, here
about that nasty business up at the outcrop!" he said. !t looks like your hunch might be
right, Drew! Looked like the work of no bloody animal !ve ever struck, around here, mate!
!n fact the fellers reckon there was more than one animal involved! But they must have
been bloody savage!"
Drew nodded back vaguely. He was more amazed at Bobs familiar reference to the
professor as OI Cnas! Then it dawned on him that there were TWO Charlies in the
house now - one young and one not so young! He was amazed that he hadnt realized it
himself. There would nav to be a distinction made in future! He wondered if Errol had
twigged this yet? One thing was for sure, Errol would love the ring of Cnas as a
nickname for the Prof! Then he realized he hadnt answered Bobs remark. Whats the
drill, then, Bob?" he asked. Did anybody go down the tunnels at all? Any pad-marks on
the floor?"
Yair!" said Bob. We found some sort of spoor, but it looked more like bloody KIs
footmarks than any sort of animal tracks, Drew! An ! mean DI) footmarks! !t was
like some kids had been in there and trodden in the steers blood, `cause there was a trail
leaden down one of those two passages a bit deeper in! We shouted to èm, but nobody
answered, so we gave up after a while. They mustve come out again an shot through!
Funny thing is but, there was no feet marks leaden back out. Stan reckoned they might
have been DIaK kids - but we dont have any on the property! ! tell yer, its got me
bloody well buggered, son!"
Here Joan suddenly interrupted him, waving a threatening spatula in his face. Bob
Jackson! How many times do ! have to ask you n! to talk about such nas!) things at the
meal table! And ! wish youd moderate your language in front of the children - an our
guest!"
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She smiled apologetically at the professor.
Och, ye Dina need worry aboot me, ma-am!" he smiled back, waving a dismissive
hand. Ahve herd a lot worse from mah ain students, Ah can assure ye! And Ahve yet tae
meet any red-blooded Scotsman who dense swear when the moods upon him!"
!ncluding nImsI/ !" Errol quietly murmured into Drews ear. The meal was finished
in comparative silence after that, and it wasnt until they had gone outside for a breath of
fresh air that Bob again broached the grisly sub]ect with Drew and Errol.
! dont think any of the blokes were really up to following the trail down that bloody
tunnel. They all had the wind up - and ! dont mind admittin that includes me, too!
Never saw a beast so badly mauled - well - what there was left of it! !m inclined to go
along with the bloody panther idea, after seein that lot! An so are the bloody fellers!
Course, little Jimmy na to start on about bloody )wIs an such, which didnt help a
whole bloody lot!"
Have you contacted the cops yet, Bob?" asked Errol. Or dont you guys want them
involved?" Bob turned a cynical AI Yu FI PaI7 gaze upon Errol. What use would
the bloody Jnns be in a thing like this?" he asked. Theyd only put it in their little
notebooks, then file it under F" for bloody Forget !t"! Theyre more at home behind a
bloody radar-gun!" His attitude toward the police was far from one of trust and faith.
Hed been nailed once for speeding between Winton and Longreach and hed never for-
given them.
Well!" said Drew, leaning against the helicopter. ! guess wed better start sorting
our gear out, ready for going back up to Undara, Errol! !f the girls get here today wed
better be ready to make some sort of a move tomorrow. Weve wasted enough time
already hanging around here. The Prof - er - Cnas seems to be fit for the off, and ! expect
the girls will be itching to go down below, too. So thatll be five of us to go underground.
Looks like youll have to make two trips, mate! ! presume you wont mind lending us Stan
and Jimmy again will you, Bob? To work the block and tackle, and so forth, eh?"
Bob nodded his assent, and said that hed like to come along too, if they wanted
him. Drew told him it was entirely up to him, but he didnt want Joan to become a sort of
gIass-wIw ]ust because of their harebrained expedition.
No worries!" said Bob. Shes only too bloody glad to get me out from under her
feet , son! Besides, shes got )ung Charlie to look after her, as well as the two girls! No!
!ll be there with bloody bells on if you can use me!"
Drew was very relieved to hear this - as he had a rather nefarious plan in mind
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which required Bob being in the above-ground support team!
Just then, he heard Joan calling him from the house. Hi! DIw1 Theres a young
lady on the phone from Longreach. She wants to talk to you!" Both Drew and Errol shot
off into the house as if fired from a cannon. !t had to be Hazel and Narianne!
!t was, too! Drew knew as soon as he heard her Kiwi accent on the other end of the
line. She said theyd had a great flight over from Auckland, and thered been a no trouble
booking on a Qantas flight to Longreach for the next morning. So, after a good nights
sleep in the airport motel, nI they both were! Drew told them to go and wait at the
office near the Helipad area, and Errol would be there inside half an hour, to collect them.
He would stay home as theyd need the extra cabin-space for their luggage. This set
Hazel off laughing heartily.
Wna! luggage?" she asked Hevent you heard the ixprission: Wn !IvIs /as!,
!IvIs IIgn!7 she misquoted. Just till !rrol to look out for a CanaIan /Ig!" she said,
See you soon, Drew! Were doying to meet you both!" Then she hung up.
Errol had been listening to the earpiece. CanaIan flag, eh?" said he, rubbing his
chin in puzzlement. Nmm.. Lets see now.!s that the one with a red leaf.?"
Drew pivoted him around towards the back door and the waiting chopper. Pointing
a stern finger, he commanded in stentorian tones: G g! `m, TIgI1 Then he propelling
Errol outside and down the steps with a gentle boot in the backside.
An hour and a half later, Drew heard the helicopter returning. With a loud call to
Joan, that they were here, he hurried out to the back verandah steps in time to see it
slowly descending upon the homesteads level yard, and, as it landed, he saw the two
young women waving excitedly at him through the domed plexiglass of its cabin. ! touched
down with barely a ]olt, and Drew saw Errols red-shining face peering at him from beyond
the girls. He was grinning lecherously over their shoulders and giving Drew the Thumbs-
Up" in delighted approval of his charming passengers!
Drew made his way down the steps toward the chopper, and, as the engine stopped
and the side-door swung open, he saw that Errols enthusiastic display of pleasure hadnt
been overdone. They were both real KnKu!s! Helping them down amid giggles and
cries of delight to see him, Drew realized that they really had struck exceptionally lucky in
their choice of female companions. Errol descended swiftly from his cockpit and per-
formed the honours of introducing them to Drew.
Hi, buddy! Here they are, safe and sound!" he laughed breezily. He put a familiar
arm around the first girls waist and said: Hazel, !d like to introduce you to my buddy and
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partner in crime, Drew!" Hazel, a very pretty blue-eyed blonde of medium-height,
beamed vivaciously up at Drew, greeted him with a dazzling smile, then, as he stooped
slightly to take her cool strong hand in his great and now rather sweaty paw, she impul-
sively kissed him on the cheek. Drew, as was his usual wont when meeting pretty young
ladies for the first time, blushed violently to the roots of his own blond locks and mumbled
out some strangled words of welcome.
Then it was the turn of the second girl to be introduced to him. Errol asked Nari-
anne to meet Drew, which she did with a rather more subdued air than her friend. She
was as dark as Hazel was fair. Her skin was rather more tanned than Hazels, and her raven
blue-black, shining hair framed a lovely serene face, which was now lit up by a pair of the
most brilliant smiling green eyes, hed ever seen. Her even teeth flashed whitely as she
smiled boldly up at him, and shook him firmly by the hand with a strong sure grip. Her
American !ndian heritage shone proudly forth from her, and Drew was quite bowled over
by her almost regal beauty. Gday! Howre you going!" hardly seemed a fitting greeting
for such a lovely woman, but it was the best Drew could come up in such a moment of
pure bewitched enchantment.
For a moment they all stood around rather awkwardly in a little group, until Joans
voice rang out from the back door. Well? Are you two idiots going to make the poor girls
stand out there all day in the hot sun - or are you bringing them inside?" she asked
]ovially. That broke the spell that had momentarily bound them all, and Drew steered
them up the steps and into the house.
Once inside, and shooed by Joan, in her best Nother-Hen" role, into the large
lounge-room, Drew this time introduced them to his Num - and to Bob, who had followed
them in from his office across the yard. Then they were soon seated on a couple of Joans
comfortable large English-style chintz-covered settees, Errol beside Hazel, and Drew with
Narianne, drinking tea from Joans best china cups and saucers.
Bob sat in his own favorite chair, smiling and nodding, whilst Joan perched upon the
arm of it, in between plying them all with a Devonshire tea of scones, thickened cream
and strawberries. Bob did most of the talking at first, as the two young men were still
recovering from being smitten almost dumb by the unexpected beauty of the two girls.
What sort of trip over did you have?" he asked laconically, as though he were a regular
commuter between Australia and New Zealand. Weather OK, for you?" Hazel assured
him it had been great, but that Longreach was a lot warmer than Auckland. Soon get
used to that," he said, as long as you keep out of the bloody sun!"
Joan frowned furiously at him from the dining table where she was replenishing
Nariannes teacup, but the girls ]ust grinned at his honest candor. Wed hev a ]ob doing
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thet!" laughed Hazel speaking in a broad Kiwi accent, Unliss we lived endoors! Love the
air-condutioning, by the way," she added. We dudnt uxpect thet in a kettle-station. We
always thought you outbeck Aussies were all burned to a crusp end us hard us nails!"
Drew laughed at this. Ah, you mustve been watching to many Crocodile Dundee"
movies!" he said. Were a lot more civilized out here than they are on the coast! Ask Errol
if you dont believe me, hes a Yank, so he should know!"
Here Narianne looked up from her teacup. What State did you say you were from
again, Errol? - !llinois or Nichigan? ! remember you telling me aboot it once, but it slipped
my mind! Sorry!" Her Canadian accent was pure music to Drews ear.
Errol smiled back at her cheerfully. No need to be!" he said. Actually !m from
Detroit - only about a half-hour drive from Canada!" Then he added hastily, well the
On!aII end, anyhow. !ts a long hike to vancouver from there, isnt it!"
Narianne smiled back sweetly. !ve an uncle and aunt in Toronto, and they took me
to Niagara Falls a couple of times! Nan! That was IaII) something Is!"
Drew felt it was time he put in his two cents worth. Did you get a chance at all to
show Narianne the thermal springs at Rotorua, Hazel?" he asked the New Zealand girl. !
went over there once on a school charter-air trip from Townsville when ! was a kid. !t was
supposed to be a kind of field-trip, but one of the boys fell into a hot mud pool and got
badly scalded, so that stuffed it up for all the rest of us!"
Hazel winced. Poor luttle sod!" she said, then she went on. No, we dudnt hev
toime for eny soight-seeung, unfortunately. Rotoruas a hundred klecks away from Auck-
land, and Narianne was only et our place a couple of diys bufore we ducided to hid on
over here! Anyhow, the mine thung is that we AP here! So ! giss wed bitter unpeck our
gear and git ourselves frishened up a but!" She stood up and handed her cup and plate to
Joan, and Narianne did likewise. Now, whires thus trailer, you told us about?"
The two young giants escorted the girls out to the helicopter to haul out their
baggage", which was comprised of only a pair of capacious hikers rucksacks and couple
of airline bags. Then they carried the rucksacks and showed the girls over to their large
trailer-home. Fortunately Joan had had the foresight to plug in the trailers power cable
to the house-supply, so it was lovely and cool inside and a compact but well-stocked
refrigerator was humming away quietly in the kitchen.
Croikey Deck! Thus us rully FLESH!" cried Hazel, in astonishment, letting her Kiwi
twang get the better of her in her excitement We thaught wed heve to doss down un
the barn - going by what you sid in your emial, Drew!" She gave him a playful punch in the
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shoulder. You old kudder, you!" Drew gave a pretend-wince.
Happy with it, then?" asked Errol, anxious not to be excluded, as hed taken more
than a shine to the vivacious New Zealander. Nothing like the ones we have Back Home
in the States, of course.."
Heppy?" grinned Hazel. Wure us heppy as a box of blooming budgies, arent we,
Narianne! Thenks, fillers!" Narianne silently smiled her thanks at Drew.
Before leaving the girls to get themselves sorted out, Drew mentioned to them that
their old Professor from Edinburgh University had also arrived, and that he was still sleep-
ing off the ]et-lag from his long plane trip from Britain.
You remember, us mentioning him in our list-messages - old Din-Dins"?" They
both grinned and nodded, and he continued, Well, youll finally get to meet him at dinner
tonight!"
But be warned," chipped in Errol, Youd better grab your share of the eats before
he gets to èm!" said Errol, Nighty fond of his chow is old Din-Dins!"
And for Gods Sake, dont get up his nose, whatever you do!" added Drew, He can
be a really cranky old so-and-so - and hes not overly rapt in the feminine gender, either!"
Hazel drew back in mock-horror at this intelligence. You dont mean hes a w/!I,
do you? Oh, how."
No, no!" grinned Drew Chas is as straight as a gun-barrel, hes - well - er.." AsxuaI?"
asked Narianne, rather surprisingly. A mIsg)nIs!, then? !s that the word youre groping
for, Drew?"
Drew blushed again for the second time since hed met the girls. The girls noticed
it, and so did Errol, he was rather amazed at this sudden strange phenomenon in a guy
whod been chased by half the females in Edinburgh, but he rushed to his aid.
Pay no heed to him, ladies!" he chaffed. This is Drews famous party-trick! Youd
be amazed how many chicks used to fall for his 5n) LI!!I B) blushing- routine! Beats
me how the hell he does it!"
Drew scowled a tad angrily at his pal.
Well hes won m!" laughed Hazel. ! dudnt know men blushed iny more!"
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But Drew noticed that Narianne was regarding him with a deeper interest than hed
noticed before. There was definitely something quite disturbingly attractive about her -
and he felt quite taken with her. Come on, mate! get a bloody grip! he told himself
silently. !ts a bit too early to start falling for the first bird who crosses your path! But she
was still looking across at him with that knowing little Nona Lisa smile as though she could
read his mind like an open book.
He clapped his hands together briskly. Come on, Errol!" he said. Were holding
these young ladies up from their unpacking and what-have-you!" He gave them a mock-
cavalier bow, and grasping Errol by a firm bicep, he hauled him out through the door.
See you later!" yelled Errol as Drew towed him away up to the house.
Dinner - (or !a", as Bob insisted on calling it) turned out to be a great success.
Joan had once again excelled herself with her amazing culinary skills, ably assisted by her
two daughters, and between Bob and herself they had literally killed the fatted calf, with
a wonderful British-style baked dinner, consisting of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding,
with lashings of succulent gravy, roast potatoes and all the trimmings, including roast
sweet potato, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and peas. This was followed by a tasty sultana
pudding liberally dowsed in rich white sauce.
The sumptuous meal was assisted down by a couple of bottles of red wine courtesy
of Errol, and a bottle of nonalcoholic wine for Joan - an for Narianne - who, it turned out,
was also a teetotaler. The men, of course, drank cold beer. However, Drew was greatly
amazed to note that Bob had finally produced his much-treasured bottle of Glenfiddich,
which he now proceeded to share with the professor. Chas, to give the devil his due - had
conducted himself with impeccable good manners and decorum throughout the meal,
and had shown every courtesy towards Hazel and Narianne, whom he chatted away to
quite happily about the role played by the Scots in the development of all three of those
once-British colonies - Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Drew and Errol were frankly astounded. !t was as though their world had been
stood upon its head, with everybody acting strangely out of character! Even Errol himself
had, in Drews view, been virtually the very model of gentility, and had kept the party
enlivened with his scintillating witty comments and asides, without once putting his foot in
his mouth - as would have been the expected norm!
Joan, however, surveyed the proceedings with great ]oy and satisfaction. !t had
been quite some time since they had had occasion to use the big lounge-cum-dining room
for such a respectable and semiformal purpose! Even the late, great Alsadair himself had
always preferred to eat his meals with the family in the roomy kitchen on his escape-trips
up to the homestead. However, it wasnt every day - or even every a come to that
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- that they had /uI overseas guests, all from different countries, over to stay, so it made
a lovely refreshing change for Bob and herself to roll out the red carpet and live it up a
little!
!n short, the evening had been a roaring success, quite literally a nIgn! ! Imm-
DI, and the party - for such it had now really become - went on until well after ten
oclock. very late for an outback cattle-property, where the usual getting-up time was
around four to five a.m.!
However, all good things must come to an end, and so they did on this occasion, too.
The girls began to yawn uncontrollably, since they had had a hectic couple of days, and
Drew pointed out to Errol quietly that it was time they packed it in, if they were to make
an early start up to Undara the next morning.
He was especially keen to get the professor down below ground and hear his assess-
ment of their chances of continuing along the course they had covered thus far. Also, it
would be a good opportunity to see how the girls handled themselves in the actual set-
ting, under real conditions. He had already discussed the transport arrangements with
Errol and Bob. Errol was to fly the professor, Bob and himself up there first, and then Bob
was to bring the chopper back and pick up the two girls and Jimmy - as well as some other
items they needed up at the site. He still didnt feel too certain about letting Bob fly the
craft, but it was really a case of Ns mus! wnn !n vII IIvs1 And Errol had
already reassured Drew in private of Bobs capability to handle the chopper in perfect
safety. Bob had actually flown it almost aII !n wa) DaK from Brisbane, Errol rather
ruefully admitted, after Drew pinned him down to the real brass-tacks truth of the matter!
Anyhow, all would be revealed in the morning. Right now, they all needed to go
and get some shut eye! The two girls offered to help Joan with clearing the table and
washing the dishes, but Joan simply wouldnt hear of it. Shed manage perfectly well,
thank you, and they must go and catch up on some beauty-sleep . The large room was
soon deserted except for the professor, who had well and truly caught up with his circa-
dian rhythms after spending most of the day asleep, and Bob, who seldom needed more
than four or five hours. They talked on well into the wee hours. Thanks to the Glen
Fiddich, each had suddenly discovered a new friend in the other.
Barely an hour and a half after sunup the next morning, Drew, Errol and the profes-
sor were standing beside the fumarole near the Undara site, peering down into its depths.
The professor was suitably impressed by their find, and admitted that hed never heard of
such a large fumarole being found this far away from an actual volcano cone. Often the
larger fumaroles and vents were only found upon the slopes of the actual cone itself, so he
was immediately interested in its origin.
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He remarked upon the traces of sulfur inside its interior and mouth, but he said that
they looked rather faint, which seemed to indicate to him that the hole must have also
vented steam and probably a great deal of boiling water under high pressure. However,
there were no signs of it ever having emitted molten lava, and this, coupled with the fact
that a myriad generations of bats - that usually frequented such apertures as nesting-sites
- accounted for it remaining open for hundreds of thousands of years. He would be only
too happy to accompany them below ground, even though twenty years had passed since
his last such field-foray. Unobtrusively, Drew visually assessed Chass girth in relation to
the tube, but finally he decided the hefty Scot should be able to pass down it with reason-
able comfort.
Bob had already set out on the return trip with the chopper to collect the two girls
and Jimmy, plus a few other items hed had Stan pick up in Winton the previous day. To
their relief, the tent still remained ]ust as they had left it a few days earlier, its door-flaps
firmly zipped and locked. All the gear theyd left behind was still inside and intact.
Before taking off, Bob had shown Drew how to reassemble the tripod and hooked the
block and tackle upon it, so that they could make some sort of start on descending, at
least to the transverse passage at the bottom of the fumarole vent-tube. !t was agreed
that Drew would descend first, then the professor, leaving Errol up on the surface in case
of any accident or emergency.
Once Drew had donned his own suit and gear, he and Errol had to assist the profes-
sor to squeeze into one of the extra lycra wetsuits from the tent, and tog him out with the
necessary harness, helmet, and other items of equipment. !t was a bit of a struggle
getting Chas zipped up but they finally succeeded, despite his many bitter complaints.
Drew selected a body-line twice as long as the one used previously to haul them out
of the tube, and, after fastening one end securely to his rappelling harness, he threaded
the other end through the block and tackle and threw the spare slack of the rope down the
hole. Now they were ready to make the descent, one at a time.
Where before, Drew had climbed down the hole using his hands and feet in monkeylike
fashion, this time he took a firm grip on the other half of the rope and allowed himself to
swing out into the opening, using his feet to fend himself away from the tubes stony
sides. Having already used this method before when rappelling down cliff faces, he found
it a much easier method of descent than actually climbing from one foothold to another.
The little friction-mechanism attached to the breastplate of his harness allowed him
full control of his rate of descent. As he went down, Drew looked up at the professors
face calling to him every move he was making, so that he would have some idea of the
principle involved. Fortunately, Chas was no slouch at grasping such elementary mechani-
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cal matters. He hadnt attained his exalted status as a professor without possessing and
using his keen powers of observation and logic, and these didnt fail him now. Ah, yes!
Ah ken fine noo how it works, Andrew, mah laddie!" he hooted down as Drew slowly
vanished from view. A mon only needs tae use his eyes and his common sense! Dinna
fash yeresel! Ahll no make a hash of it, ye can depend on that!"
However, he still had to wait until Drew reached the bottom of the shaft and then
wiggled the rope around vigorously a few times so that Errol would know that he had
unfastened it from his harness. Errol then quickly pulled the rope back up through the
pulley-block until the end reappeared. Then he attached it firmly to Chass harness.
OK, Prof!" Errol told him. Here we go! ! want you to climb down into the top of the
hole, find a place to put each foot on a wall-rock on either side, hold your body upright,
then grab hold of the loose side of the rope and gently pull yourself up a tad with it. Got
that?"
The professor nodded and did as he was bidden. Suddenly, as he pulled down upon
the free rope, he found himself hoisted off his foot-holds and hanging freely suspended.
His grip on the rope instantly tightened so that his knuckles showed whitely. He stared in
horror downward as his body slowly rotated on the rope above the dark hole. Errol
hastened to reassure him he was perfectly safe, as long as he did what he told him. Chas
stared back at him uncertainly.
Right!" said Errol confidently. now ! want you to start slowly letting the rope slip
through your fists a little at a time and youll see that this way, you can lower yourself
down into the tube as slowly or quickly as you like! You can arrest your descent anytime
by ]ust hold the rope still. Go on, !I) it, Chas!"
Chas again glared back suspiciously, as if he thought Errol was trying to trick him
into plunging himself to his death. Then he very carefully began to let the rope slide
upwards, millimetre by millimetre, through his trembling hands, and, much to his amaze-
ment, he found that he was able to control his descent quite simply by clenching or
unclenching his fingers around the rope.
Weel, Ahll be damned!" he cried in surprise. !t actually works! On1 This is nae
problem at a! !ts a doddle! A wee bairn could dae this wi nae.OOOPS!.."
As he spoke, Chas had relaxed his grip a little too far and almost fulfilled his own
original fear. However, he recovered his grip ]ust in the nick of time as the top of his bright
red helmet was ]ust vanishing at speed down the tube, and from thereon he handled the
rest of his descent with a lot more caution.
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Errol was still shaking his head in incredulity, when both halves of the rope eventu-
ally waggled vigorously and loosely below the block and tackle - a signal from Drew that
Din-Dins had reached bottom safely. So, as he and Drew had previously agreed, he now
put on his wide-brimmed Akubra and sat down to watch and wait patiently for the chopper
to return, but with his radiophone switched on at his side in case of any problem below.
Below ground, Drew and the professor stood for a moment or two whilst their eyes
became accustomed to the gloom, their helmet lamps swiveling around, slashing across
the inky darkness with white swathes of light as they looked this way and that all around
them. Chas was totally astounded at the existence of the almost level gallery that stretched
out before them, and at the smoothness of its walls.
But, man!" he cried at last, This is against a the rules o vulcanism! Ah was ready
tae accept the fumarole beinsae big, but Ah didna really believe it could be sichan a
conpleecated arrangement as a this!" He stared about in total disbelief.
Drew now guided him along the gallery, pointing out the orange tape stretched
along the stone floor. Would you believe that this was one of )ung Charlies ideas,
Chas?"
Och, ye mean auld Bobs wee lad?" asked the professor. Aye, weel. He struck me
as bein a bit o a bright spark." Then he added with a chuckle. Nost of us Chairlies tend
tae be fairly wick fellers, ye ken! Tak the Bonnie Prince himself, noo." He started to
elaborate upon Bonnie Charlie Stuarts cunning stratagems during his attempt to regain
the throne of Scotland..But Drew wasnt listening.
He suddenly stopped in his tracks. Flashing his helmet lamps around from side to
side. The orange tape had suddenly vanished from before his feet! At once he was on
his guard. Had some bunch of young hoons been down the fumarole causing mischief?
But that was impossible, surely! Only themselves and the two people from the tourist
center knew it existed. And he was sure that neither of !nm would have torn up the tape,
even if they had taken the trouble to climb down the tube.
As he slowly moved forward, he spotted a flash of orange off to one side, and when
he investigated it found it was a strip of the tape. But it hadnt been u! off, as one might
have expected from a vandalizing lout. !t had all the appearance of having been nw
I wIII off the long length by !!n! But what the hell sort of animal could there be
down here that would even bother chewing a tasteless piece of nylon tape?
Urgently he tried to do a quick inventory of the type of animals to be found in caves
such as this. Snakes? Lizards? Bats? Sundry cave insects and other similar nasties, such
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as spiders? But none of these could have chewed through the strong nylon tape, nor
would they have wanted to. They would have been hunting live tucker! Nor could it have
been a dingo. After all, how the hell would a dingo get down here in the first place!
Unless it had /aIIn down the fumarole, of course. OI unIss I! Knw / an!nI n!Ian
!na! was mun asII1 That was one possibility he couldnt rule out - especially given this
inexplicable strong current of air that blew through the passages. Naybe it could be a
dingo - or some other mammal or even a marsupial . !f it was badly in]ured it would
probably try to eat anything it could find.
Hed read a series of caving books, when he was a boy, written by some French
speleologist - what was his name? Norman? Norbert - NIDI!! Tna! was him! NID!
Cas!I!1 !t was his wonderfully graphic writing about his beloved caves in the French
Pyranees that had first fired Drews interest in caves.
He recalled now how Casteret had described descending into a deep gulf and find-
ing the almost fossilized droppings of some unfortunate dog that had clearly fallen into the
three-hundred metre pit and had actually survived the fall! Casteret had found the broken
skeleton of the dog with its severely-fractured limbs and spine. The amount of dung
attested to weeks or months of intense suffering the poor animal had borne before it
finally died. Small broken animal skeletons revealed its food-source.
The poor dog had somehow subsisted upon rabbits and other rodents that had also
inadvertently stumbled to their death down the deep chasm. A pool of stagnant rusty-
coloured water at the base of the smooth, vertical cliff face had supplied its fluid intake.
He remembered only too clearly how the tears had involuntarily rolled down his cheeks as
he had lain in bed reading that particularly pathetic chapter.
He thrust the sad vision out of his mind, and concentrated on the problem at hand.
As he cast about searching his eyes finally alighted upon the remainder of the tape.
During the ferocious chewing and ripping activity, the animal, or whatever creature had
attacked the tape had dragged it around quite a lot, but the residue of the tape appeared
to eventually revert to its original tidy orange line again. The trail then continued on
apparently unbroken as far as his headlights permitted him to see into the darkness up
ahead.
They resumed their walk along the gallery until they came to the downward-sloping
pit. Drew cautioned the professor to descend it slowly and cautiously. Even though he
himself knew now that the drop off the end of it was only a metre or so, the older man
could easily hurt himself badly if he broke into a helpless canter and fell down on to the
main caverns stony floor. They both crouched side by side peering into the great black
chamber. After much careful study of what he could descry with his helmet lights, the
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professor finally asked Drew what he thought the great chamber might possibly be.
Drew turned his helmet and lamps upon Chas face. Well, sir - er- Charlie,"
He replied. Thats really what we hoped )u would be able to tell us ! This is ]ust
about where the edge of the main magma-chamber of the volcano snuI have been, but
as you can see its all wide open, instead of the solid plug wed expected to find!"
The older man tut-tutted" at Drew in a chiding, impatient fashion. Laddie! Did ye
no listen tae anythin Ah told ye in mah laictures? Any peely-wally, hairf-witted pap-
suckin babbie in the Univairsity could a told ye! !ts DvIus that a lairge part of the
plugs IIaps1 Nan! !f its been stood here for mebbe a couple o hundred-thousand
years, Goad alone knows how many airth-tremors have ben an gone since then! Could
ye no see that theres been a awfu big fault in this very tube were stondin in right noo?"
He leaned into the great cavernous chamber twisting his head around in an effort to
see the ceiling by training his helmet lights on it, but all he saw was darkness.
!t must have well nigh brocht the hoose doon!" Then he drew back into the sloping
entry pit. !ts nae use, Andrew, well need a gey grand whopper oa sairch-licht for tae
see a this! Can ye no contact yer Daddie, an tell him tae faitch a floodlicht wi a genera-
tor?"
Drew slapped his thigh in self-chastisement. Why the hell didnt ! think of that! !
knew there was still sm!nIng missing off my shopping-list!" Then it occurred to him that
the nearby tourist-center might have ]ust the very thing to solve their immediate need.
He fished the radiophone out of its belt-holster and called up Errol.
Base here, Drew, receiving you five by five!" came back Errols cheerful voice.
Whats up, buddy? The old guy break a goddamn leg or something?" The professor,
crouching beside Drew, heard this all too clearly and made a grab for the phone. But
Drew held it away from him and shouted back: Chas naI that, mate, so youll be hauled
up before the Dean tomorrow!" Errols merry chortles came echoing back. Tell the dear
old Prof that ! apologize ab]ectly!" came his mirthful reply. Then on a more serious note,
he went on Now, what seems to be the prob, buddy. Over?"
Drew asked him if the chopper carried any distress-flares. But Errol didnt know:
Cant say ! that ! saw any, Drew. Why? You in distress or something, Over?"
No," said Drew," but Chas ]ust gave me a brainwave! We could light this big cavern
up like the bloody Opera House if we had a handful of flares! Over."
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Hey! NI On, Drew! Give that guy a gaI! What say ! try and raise the ranger-
station and see if they have few flares we could borrow? They must keep a supply for any
emergency-landings of airplanes in a fog, or if theres a power-outage! Over." Then before
Drew could reply he came back with a further idea. Lemme see if ! can raise Bob! He
should be well on his way back here by now, so ! could get him go see them on his way
here! Just hang on a tick or two. Over!"
Drew and the professor decided to clamber back up out of the draughty tunnel to
await Errols reply, seating themselves in a modicum of comfort upon a large chunk of
fallen rock in a little alcove out of the breeze. The professor held out his hand for a
moment , then withdrew it, obviously puzzled. Whares a this draught blowing from, Ah
wonder? !s there another entrance somwhere hereaboots?"
Drew shook his head. !t had us puzzled, too, Charlie. !t seems to be coming right
out of the big collapse-cavern, but we couldnt figure how or where from! Seems to me as
if its coming up from somewhere DIw us! But thats impossible - isnt it?"
Chas shook his grizzled head. Ye should ken weel be now, laddie, that na!nIngs
imposseeble in geology, laddie! Ye canna rule an)!nIng in or oot! Were all still lairning,
an if ye ever meet anybody wha says he kens it a, tell him tae get in touch wi masailf!
What we Inna Knw aboot the Airth, would fill a dozen sets o encyclopedias! So, ye tak
a word of advice, Andrew, and aways keep yer mind open! Once a mannie thinks hes
discovered all there is tae ken, nae matter hoo claiver he mebbe, he might as weel gang
awa and hang himsel!"
They sat and discussed this and various other matters - particularly the Hollow earth
theory - Drew was not a man to pass up the opportunity to preach to a captive audience!
However, the professor still stuck to his guns that the earth would prove to be a mass of
molten magma - if ever they were to try to penetrate the Nohorovicic discontinuity - the
boundary between the crust proper and the upper part of the outer mantle. Which they
would never do, anyhow, since the Earths g!nImaI gIaIn! would cause the rock and
air temperature to increase at the rate of 30 degrees C for every kilometer traveled toward
its center.
One degree centigrade for every 33.5 metres! Thus they would all be roasted to a
turn long before they had gone even four or five kilometres into the crust!
But Drew argued with him, disputing this as pure theory. How do you know?" he
asked. Has anybody ever actually been any deeper than the Western Deep gold-mine in
South Africa? Thats now over twelve thousand six hundred feet deep - or if you insist -
close to four kilometres! So, assuming you start at the surface with, say, a 30C day-
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temperature. After the first klick" youll be up to 60C and by the time you reach four
klicks down the temp will D up ! J5U?C 1 Thats 50C higher than the boiling point of
water - I numan DI1 Who could withstand that? Yet it seems those south African gold
miners cope with it reasonably well! How do you explain !na!, Chas? Air-conditioning, or
refrigerated suits?
Oh, Yeah!" he went on, And while were on the sub]ect, how do you explain the
ocean deeps being s /IzIng I even though theyre a lot closer the base of the
lithosphere, and the aIIg mantle beneath, than those deep South African mines are?"
He stared hard at the professors suddenly puzzled face, with a slightly triumphant glint in
his eye. !ll bet thats got you a tad flummoxed, hasnt it, sir!"
NO! !t nasna!" cried the professor angrily. What nas got me flummoxed is how
the heill ye managed tae miss the fac that the deepest gold-mine in Sooth Africa 15 air-
condeeshoned - AND wa!I-I ana! Ah cannae believe yed ever hae missed such
an ailementary fact as that!" He glared ferociously at Drew, who was still smiling back at
him in a most infuriating manner. As for the ocean deeps bein sae cauld - He went on,
in the same fevered fury, Nan, hae ye never haird that cold water always sInKs tae the
bottom, and that the hot IIss tae the top? Hae ye never haird me speak aboot bluidy
nv!In-uIIn!s? And then theres the." He would have ranted on at much greater
length had Drew not cut him short.
!ts all right, professor!" he laughed. ! give in! You can come down off your high-
horse now! ! recall vI) DI) !nIng you ever taught me, Chas. ! was only checking you
out to see if you were s!III ]ust as firmly entrenched as ever in your orthodox geological
views! Obviously nothings changed! ! can see that Errol and ! are going to have our
work cut out for us to prove that the Earth mIgn! )us! be otherwise than you believe!"
The professor continued to glare at Drew in disbelief. Ah! Thats what ye say n,
laddie! After Ahve caucht ye oot in yer ignorance?" he leered triumphantly back at Drew,
and cackled in his face. !n n ear anoot the I!nI! Ah always suspected ye and yer pal
must hae fluked yer finals by sheer guid luck! A yon Hollow Airth" rubbish has sapped
yer brains awa!" He was still chuckling to himself when Drews radiophone buzzed
urgently
!t was Errol to cheerfully inform him that hed managed to raise Bob in the helicop-
ter, and that Bob had found a box of hand-held lighting-flares in one of its cabin-stowage
compartments - or at least one of the girls had - after a quick search. However, he
believed that it would s!III be worth buying a proper searchlight and a portable generator
when they went back to the station. !f they I go back, of course!
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Drew felt like asking him if theyd also be able to buy Ign! nunI mIIs wI!n /
aDI to go with it! But since they had to keep their radio-conversations brief to conserve
batteries, he let it go at that. Thanks, mate! Well wait for you to ]oin us with the girls
- and the /IaIs, too! Oh, and sm!nIng ! AT as well - if you dont mind! Were bloody
s!aIvIng down here! Over!"
Errol came back on and said: Base here! Roger that, Number One. Chopper now
in sight! See you soon, buddy, complete with flares and chow as requested. Wilco, Over
and Out!"
Drew wrestled with himself not to call him back and tell him to quit all the NASA-Air
Force type communications-garbage, but he thought better of it `!ll leave all the leg-
pulling for later! he thought silently. Now back to the Prof !
He turned back toward the professor, but he had vanished! There was no sign of
him at all! At once he had a vision of the old boy fumbling about in the gloom and falling
down some hole or - or worse still - his imagination instantly shot into overdrive - some-
thing big, black and nasty creeping up, grabbed him in its steely ]aws, and.
Whoa! Drew had to physically shake his head to clear the notion from his thoughts.
The verbal image of Bobs panther" had suddenly loomed large in his minds eye! But
nevertheless, the old chap na definitely disappeared! Where the heck could he have
gn? Back to the fumarole tube or into the big collapse-chamber? He stood out in the
passageway of the long chamber and cupped his hands round his mouth. Coo-ee! Pro-
fessor! Coo-ee! Where are you?" he yelled at the top of his lungs. His eyes urgently
scanned what range of vision was permitted by his helmet-lamps, but there was no sign
of Chas, he listened carefully for an answer, but none came. !nstead, he heard a stealthy
shuffling sound right behind him! He spun around on his heels, fists and teeth clenched
tightly, ready to face the unknown - only to find himself confronted by the missing man!
Were ye callinme, then?" asked Chas, ad]usting his shorts. Whats the maitter,
man! Yer as white as a sheet! Did ye no hear me telling ye that Ah had an airgent Call o
Nature?" He nodded to the phone. Och, aye! Ah mind noo! Ye were sae busy playin
games wiyon telephone tae Harold, that ye obviously didnae hear me!" He chuckled at
Drew, whose expression of worried alarm still lingered on his face. Ahm sorry, Andrew,
but Ah had tae gang aroond the corner there tae relieve mahself. Nae doot yell forgie me
in the foollness of time?"
Drew relaxed then and realized that hed made a bit of an idiot of himself getting his
bowels in such an uproar. Then something amusing struck him. Oh, and by the way,
Chas, its PPOL - n! HAPOLD1 ! told you that a couple of days ago, if you recall? And
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seeing were all on a first-name footing, call me DIw, will you? AnIw is my Sunday
name, and todays only Tuesday! "
The professor beamed at him ]ovially. Aye, Ahll try tae remember that - DREW!
Anythin for a quiet life, ye ken!" He scratched his bewhiskered chin. Noo, then, where
were we up tae in oor discussion before a this nonsense stairted .?"
However - mercifully for Drew - they were once again interrupted. This time by the
sound of a voice along the passage toward the vent-pipe. A second later, Errol appeared,
feet first out of the overhead tube. As he touched down he unfastened the rope and
shook it around vigorously. OK, !m down!" he shouted up the tube. The detached end
vanished swiftly upward, and he turned toward Drew and the professor. Unhitching a
small haversack from his shoulders, he handed it to Drew. There you are, old buddy!
The flares and some chow for you guys! Oh, Yeah! And theres a thermos of hot ]ava in
there, too! Save some for m!" Then he turned back to look up the vent, waiting for the
first of the girls.
Drew and the professor retired a little distance away and perched on a rock slab to
unwrap separate packs of sandwiches. As they munched away hungrily, Drew found some
paper cups in the haversack and poured out coffee for himself and Chas.
Hope you like it without milk, Prof!" he said around a mouthful of ham and cheese
on rye, then cursed as he scalded his lips slurping the hot sweet beverage.
Sairves ye bluidy richt!" laughed Chas, between dainty sips at his own drink. Pity
Ah didnae tack the time tae teach ye !aDI-mannIs as weel as geophyseecs!"
Soon they were all gathered together in the first gallery whilst Drew outlined what
they had found and that they were going to have a preliminary scout around the big
chamber for a way through it into a further reach of the system. Even Bob himself had
lowered himself down to have a look around.
Drew briefly ran through the primary aims of the exercise. The main ob]ective to
begin with, was to try to find a reasonable negotiable tunnel or shaft that would lead them
downward. No doubt there would be times when they would have to follow horizontal
passages along the way, but the whole ob]ective of the exercise was to descend into the
crust. Just as long as it wasnt into a reservoir of magma, of course! However, they should
have some plenty of early warning if their route was taking them toward one of these
subterranean Lakes of Fire"!
However, he had a gut-feeling that the one which had fired this particular volcano
had emptied itself when it created that incredible 160 kilometer-long lava-tube. Not to
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mention its generous contribution to the surrounding lava-fields! All they could do was
to keep on heading downwards, if they could find a passable route, and hope for the best!
Now for the hard part!" said Drew with a grin. Has anybody got any questions?"
Hazel shot her hand up immediately. Whut heppens uf we strike an impessable lava
lake? Do we try to find a way around ut, or do we ]ust peck up end go somewhure else?"
The others all laughed nervously, except for the professor who had anticipated that this
would be precisely the case.
Well," said Drew, since we couldnt go through it, ! guess wed have to try some-
where else. We could spend forever trying to get aIun it, since wed have no idea of its
extent. So why waste the energy? No. Wed ]ust have to look for some other promising
site."
Now it was Nariannes turn . how aboat the raise in temperature as we go lower?"
she asked. ! did a lot of serious study in academic geophysics when ! started getting into
Hollow Earth theory - kinda Knw TnIn nm) stuff - you know? And ! read that the
temperature goes up at around 25-30 Centigrade for every klick you go down, and the air
pressure rises too, so how will that affect us? ! mean are we gonna get cooked on the
bone as we go - or what? Wouldnt we have been better maybe trying somewhere out in
the center of the old original plateau part of OZ?"
Drew stroked his chin thoughtfully before answering. Well to be honest, ! thought
about somewhere like the Kimberley or the Nullarbor to start with. But the big problem
there is that the Kimberley probably has a very widespread water-table below the plateau.
The Nullarbor caves are pretty well all limestone, water-worn ones, which means its all
old coral reef. And while the caves are very plentiful and extensive, they dont go very
deep - not for uI purposes, anyway!" Then he laughed. However, we could Ig our own
way down a lot easier, of course!" Then he noticed Errol thumbing himself in the chest.
Did you want to say something, Errol? The stage is yours, mate!" He stepped back as
Errol came forward.
Lookit, folks!" he smiled. This whole thing is one of those G FI BIK exercises.
We looked at a whole raft of maps and charts. ! know ! spent many hours back home
studying cave-systems all around the globe. ! also studied a lot of those satellite ground-
penetrating radar topographical charts of the Earth. But wherever ! looked, the likeliest
regions and cave-systems had already been thoroughly examined and checked out by top
speleologists and geologists. They all wound up in blind ends.
Sure, theres plenty of deep ones in places like Yugoslavia, China, !ndia and South
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America, but theyve all been checked. So ! thought, Hey! Why do we always look in the
most obvious places? Naybe we should take a peek in some of the places nobody ever
thought of trying?" Like in a vIanI IgIn, for example! Who Knows? Nebbe old Jules
verne had the right idea in the first place? ! sure hope he wont mind us borrowing his
basic idea! But the big question was where in the world has the least surveying been
done into subterranean tunnel and cave systems? We wanted somewhere totally different
and off the beaten path.. Lets face it, folks, the goddamn Nammoth Caves have been
examined by everybody and his dog!"
This brought a laugh from them all.
Anyhow," Errol continued, warming to his sub]ect, Drew here got this bug about
an old - a IaII) anIn! I - volcanic area, here in Australia, where nothing has hap-
pened for a hundred or even !w hundred thousand years! !n my book, people, any
volcanoes that last went off that far back in time, have g!!a be cold-stone dead! And
they ]ust mIgn! have left a whole heap of empty vents, pipes and passages that could
mebbe take us straight down to where we wanna go!"
He paused and waved his arms out wide in a theatrical sweeping gesture toward the
chamber in general.
So here we all are, folks, in a province that once held a nunI an sIx!)-pIus
shield-volcanoes! The nIs! kind! And !nIs one was the last to go off, a hundred and
ninety thousand years ago! Bu! waI!1 TnIs mI1 The big pIus is that its right n !n
g of the volcanic field! An its the one that mp!I I!sI/ u! the most completely,
too! !ts g!!a be the Ds! D!1 Thats why were nI, folks!"
Errol concluded his input with a very passable impersonation of Warner Brothers
famous cartoon character, Bugs Bunn) saying I-D-I-D-ID-Tna!s AII /IKs1. Then
he said: ! return you now, ladies and gentlemen, to our Host, Nr. Drew NacDonnell, for
some concluding remarks!" and he pretended to hand an imaginary microphone back over
to Drew, with a low sweeping bow.
Everybody laughed heartily and the girls gave Errol a big round of applause .
Drew was grinning too, when he said: Well! How can a bloke follow an act like that!
What more can ! really say? Naybe the best trick is for us to go on into the main lava-
chamber and see what we can with the aid of a couple of the flares. ! want you all to keep
your eyes peeled while the flares are burning, as they only last around a minute at a time.
Well be looking for any sort of exit-tunnels or shafts that will lead us down from there,
OK?" Everybody nodded, and Bob went off to fetch Drews haversack which contained
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the flares, from back up the gallery..
While Bob was away, Drew foolishly asked if anyone had any further questions. One
hand shot up. !t was the professors, and he was frowning furiously!
Drews heart sank within him. The old sods going to torpedo the whole thing!" he
thought glumly. A quick glance toward Errol confirmed that he, too, was thinking exactly
the same thing. The professor struck his customary arrogant pose that Drew and Errol
recalled all too well from his Edinburgh lectures. His thumbs were in his armpits and his
bewhiskered ]aw protruded at a highly aggressive angle.
Ah ]ust want tae tak ye back to yer comments consairning the increase in tempera-
ture as ye go doon in the Aiths crust!" he said. For some reason, ye all seem tae have the
eempression that the heat is rising from the mantle. Weel, Ah can see Ahll hae tae set ye
straight on that idea!" He paced back and forth waving a descriptive hand as he spoke,
and Drew sighed, in anticipation of a lengthy diatribe, rolling his eyes Heavenward as Errol
stared beseechingly in his direction. Nobody could stop Din-Dins when he was in full
verbal flight!
But the professor was speaking again.
Ahve heerd a sorts of rubbish talked aboot this heat-depth business, but naebody
seems tae ken the truth o the maitter! The heat that comes from deep rocks is due to
naithing but praissure from the rock-layers above! When yo go doon a coalmine, most of
the heat ye feel is being released frae the rocks by the miners an their excavators as they
dig oot the coal!" He glared around his listeners as if daring any of them to argue the
point with him.
!ts exactly the same wi yon Western Deep gold mine in Sooth Afreeca! The
deeper ye go wi yer excavations, the mair heat-energy ye release frae the rocks - and
mind ye weel that some sort orocks hauld it better than others! Also, ye can add tae that
a the heat thats bein produced by the macheenery an the swaitinbodies o the workers!
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A mine shaft is naithing more than a grand `heat-trap, pure an semple, and the deeper ye
drive it, the mair heat it will trap - and nauI!"
He smiled benignly upon what was now his lecture-class. So there ye hae the
solution - at least in some great pairt - to yon riddle o Tn DpI !n Ha!!I! Ye
naiver hear yon pot-holers an speleologists complainin aboot the heat, dae ye, noo? No!
Because the hauls have already been dug oot by Nature Hairself, meellions of years ago!"
He positively beamed at the group. Then, to Drew and Errols amazement, he inclined his
leonine head slightly, as if acknowledging thunderous roars of applause and concluded his
dissertation by remarking: An thats all Ahve goat tae say upon the sub]aict! Dinna say
Ah never taucht ye anything!"
He then turned to Drew, smiled, and handed back the metaphorical reigns. Noo
then, for Pitys Sake, Andrae, lets get on wi the sairch, mah wee mannie!" he grinned, as
Bob returned with Drews haversack.
Drew, his head still swimming with this sudden revelation of the professors other
side" lead the way, following the damaged orange fluorescent tape-line on the gallery
floor into the sloping tunnel and thence down into the ancient ruinous magma chamber.
Eroll gallantly clambered down after Drew, and assisted the two girls down over the three-
foot drop to the floor of the chamber. They both en]oyed being lifted down by the Hand-
some young American. But when he offered his hand to the professor, Chas brusquely
waved him away, saying that he was no ower the bluidy hill yet!". To prove the point, he
]umped down agilely to the chamber floor below, surprisingly without mishap. Bob also
followed, but he climbed down carefully.
His early life as a station hand, often alone in the outback, had taught him to be
wary of taking any chances of in]ury, far from help and medical treatment. Neanwhile,
Drew had opened up the pack of illumination flares and had passed two to Errol, who
needed no instruction on how to use it. Plant one of yours over there somewhere,
mate," said Drew and !ll place mine over the other side here, that way we ought to cover
most of the area! But dont ignite it till ! give you the word, and save the second one ready
for a back-up, OK?"
Errol nodded, then cautiously picked his way over fallen rocks away into the looming
inky darkness.
Then Drew, after finding the opposite wall of the wide chamber with equal difficulty,
called out to the others, who had remained close to the entry hole. Now, listen up,
people! he called, his voice echoing around some large open space hidden by the black-
ness. Were ]ust about to floodlight the chamber, and when we do, well have around a
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minute to look around for any signs of likely-looking exits from this place. Look around the
walls and the floor, too. Any sign of a tunnel-mouth or a passage, go and stand beside it,
and stay put. All right?" A chorus of OKs" came echoing back.
Then, grasping the first flare firmly in his left hand, Drew, shouted R!GHT, ERROL!"
and twisted the cap off the top of the cylinder. At once a blinding pinkish light blossomed
forth to illuminate the chamber, followed at once by another from the opposite side.
Fortunately, Drew had closed his eyes tightly as he ignited the flare so he was saved from
wasting several seconds in dazzled blindness. The glare even penetrated his closed eye-
lids, but as he opened his eyes carefully, he found the chamber to be brilliantly illuminated
in stark pink and black detail.
Above his head was a rough ]agged ceiling that sloped down almost to the rock-
strewn floor", which was really little more than a ]umbled mass of broken rock slabs and
chunks. He was amazed that nobody had fallen over them and broken an ankle. What
walls could be seen appeared to be fairly smooth, the original portions of the collapsed
lava plug that had been molded against them having broken away cleanly toppling down
to become the flattish slabs upon which they were standing.
Near the center was a dark depression, or pit, whilst around the walls there were
several black holes which were probably the mouths of secondary lava-tubes and fuma-
roles. The rest of the crew clambered rapidly across the rocky chamber floor to stand by
those holes they had particularly noticed. Then Drews flare began to fizzle out rapidly
into a faint pink glow, followed a second or two later by Errols.
The ensuing blackness was quite stygian, but for the comparatively feeble glow of
the helmet lamps of the others, now scattered around the chamber.
!s everyone OK?" called Drew. Nobody hurt or stuck anywhere?" There came a
second chorus of OKs", and ]ust to be certain, Drew counted the pairs of headlamps.
There were five, so, including himself, all were accounted for, thankfully! Right!" he
called again, What ! want you to do now, is look carefully into the aperture or hole you
have picked, then sing out if it looks passable - Oh! And tell me if you feel any draught
coming out of it! !m going over to the middle of the floor now!" By the light of his
helmet lamps, he carefully made his way over toward where hes seen the deep shadowed
depression. As he cautiously approached it, he went down on all fours until he reached
its location. Then, as he peered downwards Drew saw a deep black pit yawning away
below him! !t appeared to be around twenty or more feet across, and to his astonish-
ment, he felt an upward rushing current of warmish air upon his face! He was staggered
by his find, for it could only be one thing - and something he would never have believed
possible in a million years! !t had to be the original central throat of the volcano, up which
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all that incredibly vast flow of magma had been violently vomited two hundred thousand
years before!
As he crouched there staring in incredulity down into the inky-black well, he heard
the others calling out the results of their own finds. They had all found passages of
varying dimensions between two to six feet in diameter, but none reported any noticeable
air-currents blowing from their tunnels and tubes. The draught was coming solely from
the volcanos long dead gaping maw!
Suddenly as he sat with his mind in a turmoil, a loud yell rang out across the cham-
ber. Arrghh! Get off, you goddamn brute! HELP! OUCH! Leggo, you little bastard!
URGHHHH.!" cried Errols horrified voice, ending in a yell of pain and disgust. Drew
gaped across to where Errols helmet-lamps were bobbing frantically about in the dark-
ness, as he apparently fought off some unseen animal assailant!
!n a flash, Drew stood upright and fumbled in his pocket for the other hand-flare.
He wrenched of the cap and held the flare high above his head. As it burst into a blinding
glare of pink radiance, he saw Errol kicking wildly at something with his boots and punch-
ing at it with his gloved hands. Drew stared hard but at first the attacking creature was
hidden from his view by the intervening ]umble of rocks, then it gave vent to a tremen-
dous shriek of agony, and he saw a glistening brownish, reptilian form leap away from
Errol into the dark shadows of the rocks. Within seconds Drew had scrambled across to
Errols side, as also had Bob, who was the nearest to him.
Errol was staring wildly about him, his eyes bulging in terror. For a moment he
remained utterly speechless, then, realizing he was safe. He slumped down against the
chamber wall, almost in tears. Holy Hell, Drew!" he gasped. W-w-what in Gods Name
was THAT? !t was trying to goddamn EAT me!" Then he clutched is thigh with a pained
groan. And at that second the flare in Drews hand went out. Fortunately, the combina-
tion of Bobs headlamps and his own couple with those on Errols helmet, proved adequate
to examine Errols leg. !t had definitely been bitten, and some blood was seeping through
the tough material of his coverall pants-leg. But, thankfully it didnt look too serious.
From inside his own coveralls, Bob produced a miraculously clean and still folded
handkerchief, which he padded over the bite-wound, binding it in position with one of
Drews own less pristine handkerchiefs. ! dont think its too serious, mate." Bob said to
Errol, But ! reckon we should wash it off with somethin in case that bloody goanna - or
whatever- was poisonous! ! think !ve got the very stuff up in the chopper! But well have
to get you up there first." By now, Errol had recovered from the shock of the attack, and
was calming down. He stood up gingerly and tested his weight on the bitten thigh. Apart
from a couple of winces as he flexed the muscles, he found he could use the leg, so with
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an apology to Drew for making a fool of himself, he allowed Bob to help him across to the
sloping entrance tunnel. Chas was there to help Bob get him up onto its ledge and then
Bob lead him off up the corridor.
As he went, Errol called back to Drew, Dont stop what youre doing on my account,
bro, !ll be fine with Bob."
Drew suddenly realizing that he had no flares left, shouted after Bob to toss his
haversack down to him before going up with Errol. Within a couple of seconds Bob
reappeared with the bag, and slid it down the steep sloping tube where Drew was able to
catch it. Dont worry about Errol, mate," he said. Jimmy will haul him up on the block
an tackle and Dr. John Walker should be able to fix him up! !nside and out!" then with
a big grin at Drew, he turned and went back to see to Errols hookup to the hauling-line
dangling down the fumarole. !t took Drew a few seconds to realize who the hell this
Doctor John Walker" was. Bob must have a bottle of Scotch stashed in the chopper!
Weel!" said a familiar voice over his shoulder, Yon was a fine auld carry-on",
wasnae it?" The professor had found his way over from the far side of the chamber. What
in the name of Gaud was yon beastie, Andrew? Ah thoucht Harold was bein killed! Ah
hope theres nae more oits kin hangin aroond the veceenity! Will Harold be all richt, dye
think?"
Drew turned towards his mentor with a deep sigh. Oh, ! think hell be in good
hands, Chas! Bobs taken him to see Doctor Walker - Jnnn) WaIKI - that is! ! daresay
youll be acquainted with nIm? Oh, yes! And his name is ERROL, n! HAROLD, by the
way - ! think ! might have mentioned that before!"
The professors eyes lit up at this. Aye, laddie, ye did, an Ahm sorry. Ah must be
stairtin intae mah dotage! But as for yon other fellah, Johnny Walker", Ahm enclined tae
agree wi Bobs choice o healers"! Though Ah must admit, Doctor Grant" fills oot a
mah ain prescriptions! Och, aye, and yell no forget yon young lassies, will ye? Ah raither
imagine theyre scared hairf witless by noo!"
Drew suddenly remembered, with instant self-reproach, that hed been so con-
cerned about Errol that hed completely forgotten Hazel and Narianne, who were, accord-
ing to the positions of their helmet lights, now sitting perched closely together upon the
highest rock in the cave, in fear of the creature that must still be lurking among the ]agged
slabs and boulders. He called out some words of comfort to them both, and that hed be
over directly to guide them back to safety. They both called back that they were OK, but
would he please hurry, as they were getting a tad cold and the rock was getting pretty
hard to sit on! They certainly didnt sound particularly scared, which was another pleas-
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ant surprise!
For some reason it also struck him then that there was another, waggishly witty side
to the professor. As well as an unflappable strength of character he had never even sus-
pected in this pedantic, middle-aged scholar who had spent most of his sheltered life in
the cloistered calm of Edinburghs hallowed halls of learning! Then he suddenly remem-
bered something else! The SHAFT!
Come on, professor!" he said grabbing Chass elbow and steering him back into the
chamber. Well D!n go and rescue the damsels in distress, and then !ll show you
something thatll really make your eyes pop!" He slung the haversack over his shoulder
and led the way, over and around the ]umble of dark rocks that strewed the uneven floor
of the chamber. !n a few moments they reached the two young women, who despite their
seeming bravado, were really only too relieved to see them again.
! thunk one of my lemps is ]ust storting to run down." said Hazel, as Drew helped
her down off the high rock. We were begunning to gut worried about beung stuck in the
dork! Wuth thet thung" thet ettecked Errol, whatuver ut was!" Her sudden lapse back
into her native Kiwi accent spoke volumes for her concealed fear.
But Narianne didnt seem half so perturbed as her friend. Her face was calm and
serene as Drew looked up at her, and he had to manfully resist the urge to kiss her on her
full on the lips as he lifted her down from her rocky seat.
Weel," said Chas, as Drew fitted two new batteries into Hazels battery lamp. Sae
much for the lassies in distress, mannie! Noo what aboot the bluidy draigon?"
Drew handed Hazels once-more brightly-lit helmet back to her, then turned to Chas.
Patience! Patience!" he said. Before we go hunting for goannas, Chas, !ve got some-
thing to show you thatll knock your socks off!"
Then he turned and led them all carefully across to where he had found the great
pit, cautioning them to keep well behind him. He groped in his haversack and produced
another couple of flares. Shut your eyes everybody, ! dont want you to be blinded when
! strike the flare - ! want you to be able to see this properly!" Then he closed his own eyes
for a moment and twisted off the flare canister cap. Once the initial blaze had steadied he
told them to take a look
A second later they were all staring in astounded wonder down into the brilliantly-lit
shaft of the volcano. The girls gasped in astonishment as they peered over the edge of
the great gaping pit, and the sudden intake of breath by the professor spoke volumes to
Drew. At last he had been able to impress him!
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! canna BEL!EvE it!" cried Chas in an awed voice. Yons got tae be the actual NA!N
CONDU!T o the volcano, and yet its as CLEAN as a wheestle! Ahd never hae believed it.
Posseeble, but noo Ahve seen it for mahsel - Weel, what mair can Ah say? !ts utterly
NA!RvELLOUS!" He stared downward in wonder until the flare died and he could see no
more than its rim.
Then Drew had a great idea. Professor!" he announced, !m going to try some-
thing out that should be even more spectacular! Hang onto your hats everyone!"
He withdrew another flare from his haversack and after warning the others, he
screwed off its cap and, as it started to burst into a pink glare of blinding light, he tossed
it into the deep pit. They all lay peering down as the brilliant blossom of rosy light plunged
down the conduit. !t seemed to fall straight down forever, gradually dwindling in its
intensity as it went on descending into the pit. They lay and crouched still watching its
diminishing glow for almost a full minute, until it suddenly winked out.
Nan! !t must be miles and miles deep!" cried Chas. !f yon wee flare fell for sexty
saiconds at thairty-two feet pair saicond pair second - it must hae fallen ower !w mIIs,
before it went oot! Aye, an nae doobt its probably s!II fallin! An no a blockage in
sight!" Then he extended a hand palm downward over the shaft, feeling the gentle
updrafting of mildly warm but clean air. But what Ah canna comprehend is whiere on
Airth - or mebbe whiere In the Airth - this air-current can be blawing from? !f it was hot
gas, such as sulfur dioxide, Ah could onderstaind it weel, but this is pairfectly clean fraish
air - or Ahm a bluidy Dutchman!"
Drew laughed at this last remark. Somehow, Chas, ! cant imagine anybody mistak-
ing you for a bloody Dutchman! But its certainly a weird phenomenon all right! And so
is this perfectly clear conduit, too!" Then he fell silent for a few moments as an absolutely
crazy idea began to unfold itself within his agile mind.
The silence was suddenly broken by a rapid scuttling and rustling noise close behind
them, followed by the awful sensation of taloned feet scrabbling and pattering across their
exposed backs as they lay prone beside the pit. They felt a final sudden push upon their
helmets and, by the light of their collective headlamps, they saw a spreadeagled shape
like that of a small child leaping down past their horrified faces to plunge headlong into
the pit! The whole strange business all happened with such surprising speed, that the
thing was gone in a couple of seconds, but Drew seemed to gain the fleeting impression,
by the dimming light of their helmet-lamps, that the creature possessed outstretched
wings of some kind! They could only assume that, wna!vI it was, the creature must
have been the same animal that had attacked Errol earlier. As if right upon cue, all this
was followed before they had time to gather their wits, by a ruckus of noisy activity and
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laughing voices over in the direction of the entrance passage. As they rose up onto their
knees, Drew and Chas saw two bobbing serts of helmet-lamps heading in their direction,
still accompanied by a good deal of loud chatter and laughter.
Drew needed no telling that it was Errol and Bob, and ]udging by the cheerfulness of
their dispositions, Dr. Johnny Walker" had ministered his antiseptic (I/ aInII} services
as liberally internally as externally!
Soon the happy pair had ]oined the other four around the shaft. Hows it goin,
fellers?" cried Bob, grinning from ear to ear. Errol heres as right as rain, again! Nothing
a bloody Scotch compress cant cure, eh, Errol?" He nudged the equally cheerful Errol in
the ribs.
Oh, dead right, old buddy!" he replied. Especially when you suck the poison out
through one! And theres no need to spit it out, either!" Then he caught Drews frown of
disapproval, and assumed a more sober mien. Whats been happening, guys? Did you
catch the nasty little bugger?"
No!" said Drew, pointing to the black pit. He went down there!"
That had an immediate sobering effect upon them both - especially when Drew
squandered another of their dwindling supply of flares by lobbing it down into the hole to
give Errol and Bob a real tonsils-view of the depth of the volcanos deep conduit throat.
Errol reeled backward as though hed been shot.
Well, !ll be goddamned!" he cried after he had recovered somewhat from his
initial amazement. Thats got to be our way down, Drew! Wowee!" he shouted as the
pink flare finally flickered and die far below. Whod have ever thought of it, guys! A
volcano with an open gullet after thousands of years of extinction!" then he paused a
moment to reflect. All we gotta do now is think of a way to climb down there! But !ll
tell you what, buddy! !ts gonna be one hell of a rappell!"
Drew smiled back at him smugly. Already cracked it, old mate!" he said, "We dont
rappel or climb - we FLOAT down !"
Everybody stared at him then as if hed finally gone crazy. Bob was the first to
speak. What dyer mean, son, FLOAT down? Are yer goin to fill it with bloody water an
sit in a rubber duckie while the water gurgles away down the plug hole?"
Hey! Thats not such a bad idea!" laughed Drew. Then he turned to Errol and the
professor. Fellers, what !m proposing is that - since both Errol and ! have done a bit of
Das-)umpIng in our time - we both paracnuIe down the conduit! !td be as safe as a
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bloody bank! Theres a nice rising air-current to keep us reasonably slow and steady, and
theres heaps of room if we go down on above the other!" He stared hard at Errol. What
do you reckon, mate? Are you gam? Dyou reckon )u could do it if 1 went first?"
The two stalwart young men stared each other squarely in the eye. They`d en]oyed
many harebrained dangerous adventures together during their pot-holing and scuba-
diving in the perilous ]agged mountains and Hebridean seaways of northwestern Scotland
- and they had rapelled the high cliffs of its northern coastline. An they had base-
]umped from many an ancient rocky pinnacle and stack around the Orkney isles - includ-
ing the 500-foot OI Man / H).
Well?" said Drew after allowing Errol a moment or two for reflection. Are you 1n or
are you ouI?" He smiled mesmerizing at the young American, who smiled back. OK, you
persuasive Aussie bastard!" drawled Errol at last,. Count me IN!" Then they gripped
each other by the forearm - an almost Biblical, brotherly gesture they had often made
during their University days to signify their total and binding agreement on any and all
matters.
The others stared at them in blank disbelief. Chas was the first to give voice to his
views upon this madness. Laddies! Ye must be utterly mad! Yed be ]umping tae yere
sairtain deaths doon there! Hoo the heill would ye ever get back again, dye think? Fly,
pairhaps? Always supposing that ye didnae get burned tae a tatty cresp once ye hit the
mI!n magma at the bottom, that is!"
Yair! Bugger that for a game of soldiers, Sonny Jim!" put in Bob. Your Numd never
allow it, Drew, an you bloody well know it!" he yelled. But knowin you, my lad, youd go
ando it, anyhow!" Bob scowled at Drew, then he added. What the hell would ! tell your
Num if anything happened to you? Have you thought about that, Drew?"
Drew ]ust stared back at him with a patient Hav-Yu-FInIsn7 look on his face.
Bob," he said quietly, All you need to do is tell Num we went on an expedition and that
we didnt know quite how long itll take us to find what were looking for. Tell her that
shell be the first to know were back - when we all front up again on the verandah steps,
starving hungry and hollering for a decent feed, OK? Tell her to en]oy the peace and
quiet while she has the chance! We w1II be back, you know! You can bet your bottom
dollar on it, Bob! And thats a solemn promise!"
Then he turned to Errol. What do you say, old mate? Arent ! right?"
Errol grinned and nodded. !ts what we both wanted to do for years, Drew, so
nothing is gonna stop us now! But if we can make it !nI, we can sure as heck make it
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DaK again! Getting there is only naI/ the fun! The other half is getting back, so were hot
to trot, anrarin to go! Yes, Sirree, Bub! !n any case," he continued, "we havent even
gone yet, Bob! Weve still got to get ourselves a couple of parachutes and perhaps
something to defend ourselves with - in case we meet any more of those goddamn lizard
things! Yeah! A couple of six-shooters and a bunch of ammo would definitely be worth
lugging along! ! know !d feel a whole heap easier with one of those in my belt!"
Drew immediately agreed with Errol. Have to go along with !na!, mate! Dyou
know where we could get our mitts on a couple of handguns, Bob? And a wad of ammo,
too? ! think Errols dead right, we.."
Yed better mak that THREE!" boomed the professor. And yed better buy !nI
bluidy parachutes, an !nI pestols too, while yere aboot it! Ahm coming along wi ye,
like it or lump it! An before ye stairt wittering aboot mah age, Ahll hae ye ken that Ahm
nae a peely-wally weakling, anAh can steell toass a fair auld caber when Ahve a mind tae
do so! An, whats more, Ahm nae a mean shot wi a Smith anWesson, either!"
Here both Drew and Errol began to speak at the same time, but the professor would
not be stopped. No! NO!" he cried, in red-faced anger, before his two ex-pupils could
began voicing their ob]ections. Ahll no be talked ! of it! Ahm dammed if Ah weel! A
pair ohairf-wetted reckless ee]ots like yersels will need a steady haund tae steer ye, so
Anm mIng wI!n ), and thats I!, an all aD! it!"
There followed a stony silence among the four men as they stood, each glaring at
the others. The two girls stood behind them fuming silently together. Nobody had asked
!nm if !n) wanted to take part in the terrifying exercise that was being contemplated,
and it grated hard upon their sense of feminine equality. Good old male chauvinism
appeared to be raising its ugly head even here in the heart of an extinct volcano! How-
ever, in the atmosphere of heightened tension that already prevailed among the men,
they wisely decided to refrain from adding fuel to an already smouldering fire. They
would wait for a more opportune moment.
Drew decided that a change of sub]ect would perhaps divert the situation before it
reached a complete impasse. What about this lizard thing that bit Errol? he said, Has
anybody got any ideas about it? ! mean it was a pretty ferocious creature, and four of us
actually saw it ]ump into the conduit and kind of gII down, as if it had some sort of
wings! Gee! We even felt it run across our backs, before it leapt over our heads, so we
couldnt have imagined it!"
Perhaps it mightve been a frilly lizard?" suggested Bob. Theyll bite if you get èm
cornered, and they have that big flappy frill that they can raise around their heads, too.
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Are you sure it wasnt one of them, Drew?"
But Drew had seen too many frilled lizards in his youth on the station property to
know that it wasnt. And he told them as much. This thing had been twice as big - if not
three times bigger - than any frilly lizard hed ever seen, and it had appeared, from what
brief glimpses hed had of it, to be somehow more nmInI in its shape and its two-legged
gait. !n other words, it had seemed to him to carry itself like a little manIIK animal! Sure,
he added, when Bob raised the point, he too had seen frilly lizards running on their two
back limbs like bandy-legged little dragons, but this thing had seemed very different.
Errol inter]ected here to suggest that the creature might have been some type of
p!Ia!)I. !t had certainly had a pro]ecting horny mouth or beak full of sharp teeth, as
his leg bore witness! But Drew didnt recall it as the image of a pterodactyl.
!t suddenly occurred to him, as the fleeting image focussed more sharply in his
memory, that it na borne flaps of loose skin similar to a frilly lizard, but that they had
been stretched between its forelimbs and hind feet like the membranes of the glider
possums, and which they used so cleverly in their gargantuan hundred-yard leaps from
tree to tree! This would also work like a paIanu! as it dropped down the gullet of the
volcano, since the rising air-current was easily strong enough to slow its rate of descent
and prevent it from gaining any acceleration! What if the bloody things had become
adapted for exactly !na! purpose!
Then as he warmed to his theme, and his memory shifted into overdrive, he re-
called more sharply the fleeting glimpse of something he had seen as he and Errol were
beginning to ascend the fumarole after their first quick trip underground. !t had been
something very similar in general appearance and size, he was sure, and it had been
darting about the rocks - wa!nIng !nm! !t might have been the same one they encoun-
tered here in the lava chamber - but he had his doubts. !f theyd spotted one, then it was
London to a brick that there must be !nIs around, too!
These verbal musings obviously registered with his companions as they began to
peer around them among the tumbled rocks. Every time a helmet lamp flicked across a
rocky aperture, it created the illusion of furtive movement, and before long, Hazel stood
up staring around herself apprehensively.
Hey, look, you fillers!" she said. ! thunk uts about time we got out of here! Uts
begunning to guv me the blooming creeps! All thus talk about luzards watching us is
gitting a bet hard to take! Anybody coming wuth me?"
Narianne stood up then, and Drew, who had realized that they were simply wasting
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battery-power in their helmet lights, also arose to his feet.
! guess Hazels probably right, folks." he said reluctantly. Theres not a lot we can
really do around here right now anyhow, since weve found the way down, and where the
draughts coming from. Weve done really well today! So lets get up top and have a
breath of fresh air and a bit of a Smoko", eh?"
Bob glanced at his watch in the dimming light of his headlamps. Bloody Hell,
Drew!" he e]aculated. Have you consulted your bloody watch lately, mate? !ts nearly four
in the bloody afternoon! ! dunno about Smoko", but ! reckon we should be heading
home for our bloody dinner!"
They were all astonished at the rapid passage of time, so Errol led the way across
the treacherous rocks, pausing here and there to help the girls over the more tricky bits in
his usual gallant way. The two older men had to fend for themselves, whilst Drew brought
up the rear, glancing carefully around him as he went. However there were no more
incidents and soon they were congregated below the fumarole tube.
Bob hollered up the tube to arouse Jimmy, and was surprised to hear his instant
reply. You comin up now, boss? OK, !m all ready up here!"
Drew tied the rope to Hazels harness first, then shouted up to Jimmy to haul away.
As Hazels boots vanished steadily up the tube, he beckoned next to Narianne. You OK?"
he murmured. She looked up at his face and said Yes, Drew! You dont need to worry
about me!" Then the rope came dangling down toward them again and soon she, too,
had disappeared upwards. Within another ten or fifteen minutes they were all safely
above ground and standing around the helicopter, whilst Bob and Jimmy packed up the
loose gear that was lying around.
As before, Bob flew off with the two girls and this time Chas, leaving Jimmy to finish
packing their stuff into the tent. The fuel-gauge was reading half full, but he wasnt
worried as hed already had half a dozen forty-four gallon drums of chopper-fuel delivered
the day before and he already had a portable gas-pump to hand to top the machine up
before returning..
The chopper was dwindling away to a tiny gleaming speck in the sky as Drew and
Errol sat down in the shade to talk over the days amazing discoveries and events. Well,
old buddy!" said Errol, leaning back and wincing more than a trifle painfully against a tree
trunk. What a goddamn day this has been, eh, Drew!"
This reminded Drew suddenly of the bite his friend had received from the lizard, and
he realized that hed never asked him since if the wound was getting any easier. He did so
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now rather red-faced.
!s your leg still very sore, Erb?" he asked. Sorry ! forgot to ask earlier in all the
excitement, old son!"
Errol grinned back at him clenching his even white teeth in mock stoicism. Only
when ! laugh!" he answered ]okingly. No its not too bad really, buddy, but ! wont be
sorry to get a shot of some antitoxin of some kind, ]ust in case!"
Drew was a little concerned at this, as hed been thinking the same thing since most
lizard bites could turn nasty - even quite small ones. Here, mate," he said, Lets have a
gander at it! We dont want you to be laid up with blood-poisoning at this stage of the
game, do we? Youd better ]ust drop your daks and let me have a gig at it!" And as Errol
pretended to be alarmed at the idea, he added Come on now, dont start going bloody
shy on me after all this time, you silly sod!"
Errol did has he was told and revealed the bite-marks. They were certainly quite
deep and the skin around the wound was quite puffy and reddened. !t was obviously very
sore, but Drew could see no sign of any effects of poison or venom. With a bit of proper
treatment and some bed-rest with the leg elevated, he felt it should be well on the mend
within a day or so. However, when he told Errol this, he got quite angry.
No goddamn way, buddy!" he cried. !m not gonna hold up this operation a day
longer than we need! !tll be fine by morning - even if ! have to bath in whisky!"
But Drew was adamant. Listen, mate! We have to get some parachutes anyhow,
so thats tomorrow spoken for...and dont forget that Bob will be chasing up some artillery
for us, too! ! doubt if well be kited out until at least the day after tomorrow - if then! So
you can stay home and relax that bloody leg while Bob and ! go out and do a bit of
shopping - OK? Naybe we should get the Flying Doctor to come and have a look at you,
tomorrow, anyhow! He might be able to hurry things along a bit with the healing-pro-
cess?"
Errol finally saw reason and caved in. Drew was talking sense as usual. !t wouldnt
help if he went underground again carrying a suppurating in]ury. Common sense had to
be allowed to prevail in such a situation. Oh, hell! OK, Drew, you win!" he agreed. ! ]ust
feel like !m letting the goddamn side down, ]ust when its all starting to happen, and .."
Drews instant reply to all this was crude but to the point. Bullshit!" he said.
After a long silence, Errol spoke again. This time about the professors insistence on
coming with them on their marathon dive down the volcanos conduit What do you think
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about old Din-Dins, Drew? Do you think hes up to it? !d hate to go through life knowing
!d allowed the dear old guy to ]ump to his death! ! mean, what if the Prof has a goddamn
heart-attack on the way down? Howre we gonna feel, buddy? He might ..."
Oh, for Petes Sake, Errol!" yelled Drew, in an unusual flash of annoyance. Give it
a bloody rest, will you? !f Chas doesnt come back, the chances are that w wont either,
so ! dont think the concept of blame really applies, does it? Hes elected publicly to
m wI!n us, regardless of what w wanted him to do, so ! guess ns responsible for
whatever happens to him. Not you, or me - H, nImsI/! !f he gets himself killed, in
whatever way, on this trip, its his wn doing, so theres no sense in blaming yourself,
mate! People make their own life or death choices every day of their lives - and the Prof
has made his! So lets forget about the gloomy thoughts and hope for the best. OK?"
Then he turned to moodily scan the darkling evening sky.
Errol stared at Drew moodily. This was the first time Drew had ]umped on him in
this way, and it didnt sit too well. Then he thought about it all a little further, and began
to realize that Drew was under an enormous strain. First Bob had given him a verbal
hiding, then the professor, and now he himself was beginning to air his own doubts and
worries! No wonder Drew had rounded on him! ! !u, BIu!7
Drew sensed Errols gaze upon him and turned back toward him. Look, Errol, old
son," he said. Sorry if ! bit your head off, but !ve had it up to here with bloody Nay-
sayers" for one day! So lets forget about it, eh! OK?"
OK!" said Errol, only too happy that Drew had relented in his anger. How long
dyou reckon it is since Bob left? !m hungry enough to eat a goddamn horse!"
Jimmy, who had been listening to their discussion from under the tent flap, now
chimed in by offering to go and catch Errol a nice fat python. Hes bloody good tucker!"
he affirmed, flashing his big white teeth. You ]us ask Nister Drew, he knows - eh, Nister
Drew?" then he fell back and rolled around cackling with mirth.
Errol stared at Jimmy in amazement. Then he turned to Drew, What the hell was
all that about, bro?" he asked.
But Drew ]ust grinned at him and said, Naybe youll find out for yourself someday
soon, mate!" He recalled his thoughts about getting Jimmy to treat Errol to a Bush-
Barbecue" sometime, as Bob and his Dad had once done with him!
!t was nearly an hour later before Bob finally returned with the chopper. Hed had a
bit of trouble with the hand-pump whilst refueling the tank, but it was all right now.
However, the dark would be upon them soon so he wanted to get them aboard and away
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with all speed, having had no experience of night-flying a chopper.
Thats OK, Bob!" said Errol, I'll fly her home, so dont worry! You can learn from
me as we go. ! wont be using my leg much, so well be ]ust dandy! Really!" he added
when he saw the doubt creeping in Bobs weary eyes.
!t was quite dark by the time they arrived back in the vicinity of the homestead, and
Errol had to use the large searchlight underneath the fuselage to first locate the house
itself and then a landing spot in the yard. However, they got down in perfect safety, even
though Errol himself had only flown a helicopter a couple of times before in the dark. By
now however, despite his claims of being fine, his leg had stiffed up quite painfully and he
had to be helped down from the chopper, and assisted by Drew and Jimmy to the house,
whilst Bob secured the helicopter for the night.
Once indoors, Joan, who had already been told by the girls and Chas of Errols
encounter with some sort of savage reptile, insisted on inspecting the bite for herself. She
had been a nurse before a much younger Bob Jackson came into her life as a patient in the
Nackay Base hospital, and when he finally left, after recovering from a severely-fractured
leg, he had taken her away with him - to become his wife! Thus, having worked in a
tropical hospital, she knew something about poisonous bites from reptiles.
Errol tried to downplay the in]ury, but he was obviously in severe pain, so, after
closely inspecting the inflamed wound, which had also turned rather purplish around the
puncture-marks, Joan at once called up the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Cloncurry. As
luck would have it, one of their pilot-doctors was attending a patient on another property
toward Longreach direction, so he would drop in on his way back from there within a half
an hour. Bob and Jimmy hurried out in the ute to light up the airstrip with bitumen flares.
Errol was quite cranky about all the fuss, but he was even more concerned about
what he should tell the doctor regarding how hed come by the bite! Drew came to his
rescue. Well ]ust tell him that we were inspecting that cave up in the outcrop - you know
- the one where we went into that time, ]ust after you arrived, and where ! found that
steers head? ! can back you up then and tell him it was some sort of overgrown frilled
lizard or goanna that had a go at you. OK?"
Bob, who had been standing beside Drew, nodded and stared at the wound on
Errols thigh. Nightnt be all !na! /aI from the bloody truth, either, Drew!" he hissed in a
hoarse whisper, so Joan couldnt hear him. What if them same savage little sods have a
nest wn nI, too? ! mean, for all w know, the bloody things might have spread south
through underground tunnels from Undara - ]ust like the bloody cane-toads have spread
out all over the bloody east coast from the cane-fields round Nackay!"
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Bob was referring to an unfortunate environmental catastrophe that had followed
the importation of a few poisonous Caribbean cane-toads in an effort to eliminate huge
swarms of cactoblastis-beetles that were devastating the Queensland sugar cane-crops.
The toads proved more than efficient in killing of the beetles, which were their favorite
food. So much so that, in the end, the cane-toads began to multiply at a terrific rate and
had now become a dangerous and hideous pest, that had bred and spread in multitudes
right down the eastern seaboard of Queensland and Northern New South Wales! Not
only were they decimating several small and rare species of native frogs and other small
Australian wildlife, but the poison they carried inside twin sacs on the back of the neck ]ust
behind the eyes, was appallingly deadly to any domestic dogs that attempted to bite
them. No means has yet been found to control the spread of the cane toads beyond direct
culling by humans!
Bob stared grimly at Drew, and added: Couldve been them IIzaI-!nIngs that got
that poor bloody steer up at the outcrop! What dyer reckon, Drew?" Drew was already
way ahead of him. Hed wondered what might lie down that second, unexplored tunnel
which Errol and he had not had time to investigate. Now Bob had put his own worst fears
into words! !t was entirely possible, and he dreaded to think of the implications such a
possibility might carry regarding their investigations up at Undara! However, he wasnt
about to let his concerns show - or to allow them to put him off his chosen expedition.
The creatures most likely hung around the subsurface cave and tunnel levels where the
edible pickings were easy among the geckos, skinks, bats and even snakes that inhabited
the caves. But their expedition was intended to go infinitely deeper than any such
creatures could reach. Once they had base-]umped down that great shaft, they would be
in another realm entirely!
Suddenly his idle thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an approaching low-
flying aircraft, and, as the pilot intermittently buzzed" the house overhead, Bob dashed
off again with Jimmy to help guide in the Flying Doctors twin-engine Beechcraft King Air.
Soon the breezy young doctor and his charming young nurse were examining Errols
leg-wound. He quizzed Errol and Drew as to its origin, and seemed satisfied that it was a
lizard or goanna bite. ! doubt that the bitell be poisonous in itself, " he finally opined,
but the big risk is from the foul, rotting carrion that might have been on its teeth and in
its saliva, so !d best give you a couple of shots - sorry, old mate!" he grinned as Errol
cringed at the news. ! reckon a quick anti-tet shot and a little ]ab of cortisone should do
the trick, cobber!" Then, after the nurse swabbed the wound thoroughly with antiseptic,
applied a dressing and bandaged his thigh, apart from a couple of loud yells as the needles
went in, Errols medical ordeal was over.
The doctor also left him a supply of mild antibiotic capsules and told him that the leg
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should start feeling better in a day or so, but if he could rest it up for a week it would heal
that much faster. Then, after en]oying a quick cup of tea with Bob and Joan in the kitchen,
he and his pretty nurse were gone, driven back to their plane in Bobs utility.
As he listened to the plane taking off, Errol told Drew that he might ]ust !aK !uIn
/I !n wIs during the night - if only he could be sure the doctor would bring his
luscious-looking nurse along to hold his hand! Upon overhearing this wisecrack, Joan
laughed and told him that he was too late. The pretty young nurse was already spoken
for. She was ngag - to the !I!
However, Drew couldnt help but notice that Hazel didnt appear too pleased with
Errols banter about the nurse! Àha! He thought. `So !na!s the way the land lies, eh! Of
course, his selectively fickle memory had temporarily chosen to overlook his wn secret
infatuation with Narianne! The biggest problem however, was the holdup with Errols
leg, Hed rather hoped that they might be on their way within a couple of days, but now
it looked like theyd be kicking their heels for a whole week! Errol could see the disap-
pointment on Drews face, and wondered what the heck he could do about it. Drew, alas,
was one of those totally transparent people whose every thought was immediately re-
flected upon his expressive features.
Then an idea came to him. Hey, Drew!" he said, ]ovially. seeing !m nIs--
gamn-mDa! for a day or two, why dont you give dear old Chas a few flying-lessons",
up near the outcrop?" Drew stared at him for a moment until the penny finally dropped.
Errol was suggesting that Drew might take the opportunity to introduce the Prof to the
gentle art of Das-)umpIng! Hey, G On, Errol!" Drew grinned. But Chas had
overheard Errols remark from the next room and appeared in the doorway, puffed out
with indignation. Och, nae ye n!, laddies!" he cried, Yell no get me at the controols
o yon contraption! Nan, de ye no ken that a canna even drive a bluidy motor-car, let
aloone a..."
But Drew headed him off quickly before he got into his verbal stride. No, No!
professor! What Errols talking about is me teaching you to use the parachute! Not how to
fly a chopper!" But this only seemed to upset the middle-aged Scot even further still.
WHAT!" he almost screeched. Ye mean tae tak me aloft in yon choapper and pusn
m ! wi nathing but a flimsy wee bit silk between maself an Etairnity? Nannie, a Inna
!nInK s! Ah never had a heid for heights at the best otimes - an these are far frae the
best ]ust noo!"
Drew saw that he had his work before him, and began laboriously to explain that he
had no such intention and that they would simply ]ump together from a low cliff a few
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times until Chas got used to the idea. Surely Chas, whod only yesterday volunteered to
]ump with them, wasnt suddenly afraid of a tiny wee drop with a big parachute lowering
him gentle as thistle-down? Some of the bravest men in the Parachute Regiment and the
SAS had been Scotsmen! Specially selected for their fearlessness - not that there was
anything to /aI in simply base-]umping, of course!
Gradually he managed to coax and wheedle the stubborn professor, who was inordi-
nately proud of his Scottish heritage, to display a bit of courage, and give it a shot. !n
the end, with Drews silver-tongued aid, Chas began to see himself as something of an
heroic figure - a latter-day Braveheart" or Rob Roy NacGregor!"
Early the next day, Drew borrowed the station ute, and drove down to see a friend
of his who ran one of the workshops ad]acent to the airport in Longreach. He was into
practically every dangerous extreme-sport" activity imaginable, but it was his skydiving
and base-]umping interests which concerned Drew. !f anybody around Central Queen-
sland knew where to lay hands on some base-]ump chutes in a hurry it would have to be
Gabriel Evans! Because of his surname and his favorite sport of skydiving, not to mention
its probable eventually grim outcome, Nike was known to all his pals as Gabe" or The
Angel"! Nike liked the appellation as he thought that in some way it helped preserve him
from coming to any harm in the air - or far more importantly, upon returning to Terra
Firma!
The Angel" was actually busy packing a `chute on a long, smooth bench when Drew
strode into his workshop, and Drew knew instantly that it was Gabriels own. All fair-
dinkum serious sky-divers repacked their own parachutes personally as a matter of prin-
ciple, it saved a lot of finger-pointing later on, if one were unlucky enough to have an
opening malfunction, or, in the case of old-style chutes, simply do a Roman Candle".
Either way the result was usually pretty final!
After their usual exchange of badinage, beginning with Gabriel clutching his chest
and crying: God, Drew! You made me bloody )ump!" To which Drew replied with the
stock response, No ! dont, Gabe! You do it entirely of your own free will!", Drew cut
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quickly to the chase. Look, mate, would you have - or can you get for me, in a hell of
a hurry, three base-]umping chutes? ! need them ASAP, as we have a visitor over from
the Old Dart, and he wants me to teach him the finer points of leaping off cliff tops! Have
you got any, Gabe? !ll pay you twice the going rate if you can rustle them up for me
pronto!"
Gabriel gave him a look of mock-despair. Aw, come on, Drew! What are cobbers
for? You know that bribery and corruption will get you anywhere with me!" Then he
pretended to pause and reflect frowningly, gazing heavenward with a finger crooked over
his chin. Seem to recollect some poor sod offering me half a dozen used ones from a
deceased estate ]ust the other day. A couple of èm are a bit bloodstained, but itll wash
out easy enough! Hang on a tick while ! go an check in the back!" He vanished, grinning,
through a rear door, before Drew had the chance to tell him to quit ]erking him around.
A couple of minutes later he returned carrying three neatly-packaged brand-new
chutes, and thumped them onto a nearby workbench . There you go, me old whacker!"
he grinned. Just like ! said! Now lets see - three hundred bucks apiece - times three -
plus GST - comes to around a grand even. Card or cash, sir?"
Drew stared at him hard, Hey, hang on, Gabe! These are DIan-nw! Either they
fell off the back of a truck, or youre robbing yourself blind! Nake it a grand apiece and !ll
take èm! OK?"
But Gabriel was adamant. No, mate, one grands my final offer - take it or leave it!
! got èm cheap at a Run-Out, End-of-Line sale, so !m passing the favor on to you !
Theyre OK, but! This is one that !m repacking right here! He indicated the one hed
been packing when Drew walked in. ! ]ust used it myself this very morning as a skydiving
chute! So what more can ! tell you?"
Drew had little choice but to capitulate gracefully, and hand Gabriel his AmEx card.
You drive a naI DI) DaIgaIn, mate!" he grinned. And so also did Gabriel!
As Drew placed the three packages in the back of the ute, it suddenly occurred to
him that Gabe might conceivably know where he could lay hands on three revolvers and
some ammo. He certainly had a number of shady cobbers, even though he was regarded
as an Angel! !t was worth a try. So he went back inside the workshop again.
Gabe raised his eyebrows at Drews sudden return. Well! That was bloody fast,
Drew!" he said. Sorry, mate, but ! dont do any I/uns. !ts bad for business!"
But Drews sober and conspiratorial expression soon wiped the grin of his face.
whats up now, Drew - Something else you need?"
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Drew nodded and glanced over his shoulder as if he expected to kind a couple of
policemen standing behind him. Listen, Gabe. ! dont want to put you on the spot or
anything, mate, but you wouldnt happen to know where a man might be able to pick up
a bit of light artillery do you? And something to shoot out of it?"
Gabriel`s face became a mask of mock-horror. Who? NE?" he gasped. Whatever
you take me for, Nister NacDonnell? Are you implying that ! consort with the criminal
classes around these here parts? Lawks a mussy, Naster Drew! Youll be inviting me to
]oin your bloody gang next!" He went very quiet then, eyeing Drew in a highly speculative
fashion. ! might ]ust possibly know of such a supplier, mate." he murmured at length..
But such merchandise doesnt come cheap, you know! What you got in mind? Auto-
matic? Revolver? Uzzi? Shanghai?"
! was thinking something like service-revolvers, Gabe," whispered Drew with an-
other glance over his shoulder. TnI of èm! Plus about a hundred rounds of ammo
apiece"
Again, Gabe looked at him thoughtfully.
Not thinkin of stickinup the bank, are you, mate?" he said. !f so, do me a favor
and give me time to draw out my savings, will you!" Then he stopped playing games.
OK, Drew, ! know you well enough to know its not a IIm-!nIng. Nor will ! ask you what
you IaII) want èm for! Better ! dont know, eh? Anyhow, all ! can say now is that !ll
give it my best shot for you - /IgIv !n DI) pun1 - and !ll give you a bell in the
morning, OK? But !m warning you now that !d have to get èm from Brissie, and they
wont be nap, either! T1 theres any go1ng, that is!"
Drew sighed with relief. Thanks for that, Gabe! And, No! Theyre simply for
defence against wild animals! Couple of mates ! and are going on a sort of sa/aII, and we
]ust mIgn! need some protection along the way! As for the s! - well - whatever it !aKs,
Gabe! - And dont forget to add on a bit for your wn trouble, too!"
Oh, dont worry, Drew, ! bloody well will!" he grinned wolfishly.
But as Drew left the workshop, Gabriel stared after him in puzzlement. Three base-
]umping chutes and three revolvers? What the hell was Drew up !? Bailing up the QE!!
as she passed under Sydney Harbour Bridge? He scratched his head in perplexity as he
picked up the telephone and dialed a Brisbane number.
Drew drove back home feeling as though hed actually achieved something at last.
!t was no fun constantly running into stumbling-blocks every time he tried to get the
Undara show on the road! Now he had a sizeable nw challenge in front of him. He had
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to try and make some sort of a ase-]umper out of Chas within the next a) I !w! !t
was a hell of an ask, really! One needed at least a hundred practice-]umps to qualify as
a base-]umper - not to mention a fair bit of experience as a sRy-d1Ver too. Somehow,
hed be pushing his luck to get Din-Dins to leap out of an aircraft n!
However, when he got back to the homestead, the first person he saw was Chas,
leaning on the verandah rail, and taking the pleasant morning air. He greeted Drew
cheerfully, and asked him quite un-worriedly when he intended to start giving him his
FI)Ing Lssns! Drew was quite astounded at this about-face, but nonetheless he wel-
comed it. Chas had obviously managed to convince himself that he was up to the chal-
lenge, so he wasnt about to do anything to dissuade him.
Well, Chas," said Drew, hefting the three parachute packs out of the utes tray, !ts
up to you, mate! !ve got the gear right here so anytime you feel like making a start is fine
with me!" He glanced at his watch which told him it was around eleven am. Naybe wed
better go and have our Smoko" first, and ! can start explaining a few of the rules and regs
about base-]umping to you while were at it. You should really have a whole heap of
training really both instructive and practical, but since were only going to make the one
]ump - ! reckon Errol and ! ought to be able to teach you enough of the fundament theory
between us to make you aware enough of whats what."
You mean that )I going tae teach m some theory?" grinned Chas. Weel, noo!
Theres a fine tairn up for the books! The tutor become pupil, eh?" He opened the back
screen-door to allow Drew to carry his purchases into the house. Joan, was happy to see
him back so soon. Just in nice time for Smoko", Drew! The teall be brewed in a minute!
Errols lying in state in the lounge-room. !ll fetch it in there for you all!"
Errol was sitting on a long sofa with his leg elevated on a couple of pillows. He
looked a lot happier than he had last night, and he told them his leg was already feeling a
lot easier. Nust be the doctors pills, buddy - plus his godamn shots! But the only place
thats sore now is where he ]abbed my backside!" Then he looked at Drews latest
purchases. Yippee!" he grinned. Looks like were nearly ready to Rock and Roll, Buddy!"
Drew lent over him and whispered hoarsely into his ear, Yair! And were nearly ready to
Lock and Load", too, if a certain mate of mine comes up with the goods!" He tapped the
side of his nose and winked broadly.
Then, before Errol could quiz him further on the weapons, Joan came in with a tray
loaded with three large mugs of steaming tea and a big plate of buttered damper straight
out of the wood stove, which she still kept in her otherwise modern kitchen for the sake of
such traditional outback country fare. She also used it for baking her own wonderfully
crusty and scrumptious farmhouse bread. The gleaming stainless steel electric range
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that Alasdair had bought for them only a couple of years back, was relegated to the more
mundane culinary tasks. She looked on appreciatively as the three hungry men attacked
her tucker with gusto.
There!" she smiled. That should stick to your ribs till lunchtime!" As she turned to
go, she noticed Drews new purchases stacked beside his chair. what on earth have you
been buying now, Drew?" she asked, unable to hide her feminine inquisitiveness. Oh,
]ust some extra diving-gear Errol and ! want to try out, Num!" he lied. She seemed
content with this, and said Ah, well! ! suppose its your own money youre wasting, son,
so its no business of mine! Just mind that nobody trips over it all!" Then she left them to
it.
Some goddamn D!vE, Drew!" snorted Errol merrily, showering the settee with crumbs
of fresh damper. And hopefully we wont get too wet doing it, either!"
Then, with Drew he began to unpack and examine the contents of one of the packs.
Hey! Hey!" he cried. This is good gear, buddy! !t must have set you back a hell of a
bundle! Remind me to chip in half the expense! These chutes go for around at least a
grand and a half back Home! Waddya pay for them?"
Ah! Thats for me to know and for you to find out, mate!" answered Drew with an
air of mystery. You can pay for the hardware", Erb - if we get any!"
Chas had been busy feeding his face during this exchange, but he had been listen-
ing to their conversation and he secretly marveled at the great expense these two young
ex-students of his were prepared to go to in their quest to prove such a harebrained myth
as the existence of an !nner Hollow Earth! After the astounding revelations of the interior
of the volcano, he had suddenly begun to realize how much Science in general took for
granted as being actually true or even possible! He himself knew of no one who had
actually ventured inside a volcano, extinct or dormant! Nost of what was alleged to be
discoverable inside a volcano was based entirely upon supposition and educated guess-
work!
True there had been some damn-fool vulcanologist - a Frenchman or an Algerian he
thought, named Tazzieff, who had been involved in a great many rather lunatic escapades
with them, but he could recall reading anything about him ever actually going inside the
actual vents and tubes of one. As far as he could recall, the man had been a daredevil
dabbler, who climbed into the craters of live volcanoes to test their lava and obtain samples
of their gases, at great risk of life and limb!
Dinwiddie had not always been a stuffy old geophysics professor. He recalled the
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days of his more youthful field trips down tunnels and caves and pot-holes in search of
veins and strata of interesting rock, and had often got his hands dirty in the process of
hunting out unusual rock specimens, had gone back to the University filthy sweating and
often bleeding too! That was in the days when he himself had often clambered and
crawled in highly-dangerous places in search of backup proof for some of the often argu-
mentative assertions he was writing in his doctorate thesis.
His younger years had been full of such blood-racing activities, and he often thought
in retrospect that he had gained his doctorate more by sheer cheek and nerve than by
writing what he felt his professors wanted to read. !n short, Charles Archibald Dinwiddie
had himself begun his career in the Edinburgh University faculty as a secret rebel against
any form of conformity.
This was probably why he had taken such a shine to these two sturdy young men
from far over the seas, who brought the independence of their native lands into Edinburghs
stately halls like a breath of fresh and invigorating air! He saw himself - or rather the
man he might have been - in these two brawny and fearless, lanky young giants. He
found them a pleasure to teach, not merely because of their agile minds and ready wit,
but because they both also possessed the moral courage to stand up and challenge some
of the more preposterous assumptions that the textbooks claimed to be unassailable truths,
before their peers, and to his own face!
He had even admired their nerve in covertly studying alternate theories on the
!nternet at nights, when they thought their nefarious studies and extramural activities
were unknown to any of their tutors. Yet when discovered and challenged, they had
refused to crumble and repent - even in the face of possibly being sent down". They had
stood their moral ground and argued him back - much to his secret delight!
And now, here he was actually nIpIng !nm to try and prove that all the edicts of
the very science he had taught them were fundamentally wrong! And over the past few
days he had begun to recapture some of his own youthful fervour and exhilaration that
had made his heart pound with sheer ]oy in the search for the proof of his own theories
and concepts!
His introspective, reflective mood carried him back to other, fonder memories. !n a
sense, because of these two often foolhardy and inane young fellows, he had somehow
been reborn into the Archie Dinwiddie he had started out in life being. His later years
had been spent in the cloistered calm and academic halls of Edinburgh University as a
respected member of the faculty, but he had often looked back wistfully to the man he
might have been, had he not chosen to take the easier course and go with the flow"!
However, having always been a great lover of Burns and Scott, he still loved to hear or
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read the English they had spoken or written. Although he had the Gaelic, as a University
Science professor, he couldnt use it, but he had never ]oined the many others among his
fellow-Scots academicians who adopted an affected English air and accent. He was a Scot
to the bone and he saw no reason to abase himself by speaking English in the haughty
upper-class Sassenach manner.
His father had named him CnaIIs, but he had always been AInI to his fellow-
students in his youth, and it was only after marrying his late lamented wife, Fiona, that he
had become CnaIIs again. She, being of Stewart blood and of lofty aspirations, had
much preferred his first name above his middle one, which she regarded as too common
among the lower orders. However, he knew that this was simply a wishful affectation
relating to her imagined illustrious kinsman, the Bonnie Prince" himself. Thus, after her
sudden death from a familial heart-complaint after only seven years of marriage, he hap-
pily allowed his friends and colleagues to curtail his name to Charlie" - thus still paying
due honor to his dead wifes wishes.
Possibly it was this defiant trait and his refusal to moderate his dialect that had
prevented Charlie from being considered for a deanship. But he was proud of his Scots
heritage and, if the English students attending his lectures had some difficulty in constru-
ing his strong Highland dialect and idiom, then let them hasten to learn it! Wnn In
Pm, as !n Pmans 1 was an excellent philosophy in his view.
Bob had told Chas much about Drews family history, and he felt much happier for
being told it. He had realized long ago that Andrew NacDonnell was obviously of Scots
ancestry, but he hadnt known anything about the lads grandfathers hard struggle to
make his way in a new land. Nor of Andrews father, Alasdair, having graduated with
honours from Edinburgh, and then gone on, under his own steam, to attain a meteoric
rise to fame and fortune. Unfortunately their paths had never crossed during their over-
lapping student days at the great University.
Chas had hitherto seen Drew simply as a brash young Australian with a Scots name,
but many others of his overseas students had also borne Scottish names, but they were
English, Australian, Canadian or American, through and through, being several genera-
tions removed from their ancestral forebears. But now he saw Drew in a new light. Bob
had even taken Chas to the little white-fenced burial-plot that was now forever a tiny
square of Scottish soil in a strange land. There Chas had stood with bowed head beside
Bob in silent contemplation of the strange vicissitudes of life.
As the professor considered all these things, he realized that despite his inner rebel-
lion, he had still spent most of his academic life paying lip-service to scientific orthodoxy,
and had even helped in stuffing it like babbies pap into the wide-open, ingenuous minds
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of those young innocents placed under his scientific tutelage.
And now, he had been given the opportunity to redeem himself, and he was pre-
pared to grasp it with both hands. !t was an opportunity too grand to miss, and he would
walk through fire if necessary to become his wn !Iu man again! (However, let it be said
that, had he known in advance that he might be called upon to actually do so, in the most
literal sense of the term, it might have cooled down his born-again" fervour quite consid-
erably!) He mused on contentedly down Nemory Lane staring blankly out through the
wide sunlit window.
Suddenly the professor realized that Drew was speaking to him, and he came awoke
from his daydream reluctantly and slightly bemused. EH? WHAT?" he asked with a slight
start, staring bewilderedly at the two figures seated before him.
Sorry to fetch you back to earth, Chas! grinned Drew apologetically. But ! was
wondering if you feel up to your first lesson in base-]umping this afternoon? Nums
making us up a snack-lunch, and afterwards ! could take you down to the bluff and start
showing you the basic ropes. Nothing too dramatic to begin with, you understand - youll
mostly be watching m )umpIng for the first hour or so. OK?"
The professor nodded his head willingly. He had every confidence in Andrew after
the leadership hed displayed up at the volcano, so he felt safe in his hands. After all, even
a teacher has to be taught! So who better than someone hed tutored himself! Aye! he
smiled to himself. !t was quite poetic ]ustice in a way!
As Joan marched in bearing a large plate of assorted sandwiches and a ]ug of her
own homemade fresh lemonade, Errol chimed in from the settee. Hey! While were scoff-
ing our chow, Prof, ! believe it might be a good idea if we told you a few things about the
sub]ect. So youll know what to expect! Waddaya say?"
The professor nodded again, and pulled his chair a little closer as Drew opened up
one of the packages, and began pulling out a miscellany of assorted bits and pieces, but
the primary item was a body harness with a pendant backpack containing a folded bundle
of brightly-coloured, fine nylon-silk material which was attached to the harness straps by
a folded bunch of thin nylon-rope lines. Chas recognized it as a parachute. But he nearly
choked on his ham and cheese sandwich when Drew spread the canopy out upon the
lounge room floor, for it was in the shape of a I!angI, at least 15 feet across by 6 feet
wide, and it had been sewn from front to back into a number of separate cell-like compart-
ments, each around 15 or 18 inches across! He had been expecting a circular parachute,
but this was more like a w1ng!
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Right, Chas!" said Drew. this is your canopy, and for base-]umping you have to
start with the chute already opened, because normally youd would have a long enough
fall for it to open in the usual way, as youd already have bitten the dust before it had time
to deploy!" He grinned at the Profs horrified expression upon hearing this, and waved
his hands in a smoothing calming gesture. No, no, Chas! Before you get into a flap!
Lets not forget that weII have a hell of a lot further to descend than any ordinary - or
even x!IaIInaI) - base-]ump! So that you can put !na! thought out of your head!
However, we need to start going down in a buoyant state right from the start, so well
let the updraught start fill out our canopies as we ]ump off. That way well ]ust sort of drift
down the conduit nice and easily, without swing back and forth, for as long as it takes!"
Hoo fair doon dye reckon well be likely tae drop, before we reach the bottom,
Andrae?" Chas asked, striving desperately to keep a quaver of anxiety out of his voice. !t
looked like a guid mile or twa, tae me, before yon flare went oot - at the verra least!"
Drew eyed him carefully. Well, professor," he said warily, we were rather hoping
that you might be able to tell us that! As far as ! can remember from my volcanology,
there should be a magma reservoir-chamber within perhaps a mile or so down, and !
would expect it to have other inflowing tubes and tunnels where the magma used to be
fed into it. !f were very lucky we might ]ust find that they arent all blocked off by
solidified magma. !m banking on finding the odd one or two that are still open, and which
will take us lower! Does that make any sense to you, sir?"
Drew didnt even realize that hed lapsed back into his old style of deferential ap-
proach to his erstwhile tutor, nor did the professor. He was back in the classroom again,
holding a technical debate with his pupils.
Laddie!" he said. Hoo many times have Ah told ye that aII thengs are pssDI in
Nature! Ye canna tak ann)!nIng for granted! Always remember that we scientists didnae
mak the rules! Goad and Nother Nature deid that between them! So, ye might weel be
IIn! - I wIng - as the case mebbe. Ahd be enclined tae say well ]ust hae tae wait
ansee!" Then, after a moment of further reflection, he added: But theres mair than a
fair poseebility that there might pairhaps be the odd open tube goin upwards frae that
reservoir chamber! Sae theres some faint hope o us findinoor way back up agaIn - at
least Ahd hope sae, anyhoo!"
Errol butted in here, in his usual crass, lighthearted way. So there might be some
light at the end of the tunnel for us then, hey, Prof?"
Chas gave him a glowering stare. Ahm saddened tae see that yer sense o humour
hasnae emproved ower much since ye were at the Univairsity, Burroughs! Ah raither
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fancy yell steell be gropin in the dairk a fair wee while yet, tell yeve feneeshed growing
up, mah pettiful wee mannie!"
Errol grinned widely at this. He was glad to see that the old guy could still hand out
a king-sized rebuke when he was peeved!
However, drew realized that they were getting well off the topic. So he returned to
discussing the parachute-descent that faced them all. !n a few minutes, Chas, you and !
will be heading over to the outcrop, so that ! can show you how its done, and who knows
, we might even have )u try the odd ]ump before teatime!" he treated Chas to a big
hopeful smile of confidence. A confidence that Chas had not yet keyed himself sufficiently
up to share. But before we do that, ! ]ust want to say that when we finally go down
the volcano nuI!, !ll be going first, then yourself, Chas, and then Errol will follow above
you, OK? That way, if anything should go amiss at all, at least youll be in between us, so
one or other should be able to help you. !s that OK with you, Errol?"
Errol nodded happily, and said Yeah! At least, if the worst comes to the worst, !ll
have you two guys to break my goddamn fall!" Before the professor could have a piece of
Errol again, Drew asked him if he had any decent boots with him.
Sadly, that was something that Chas hadnt foreseen. He had a reasonable pair of
Adidas ]oggers, but Drew wasnt keen on those. He didnt want to try coping with a
broken ankle at such a far-gone stage of the proceedings! Just hang on a tick! !ll see
if Bob has a decent pair you could borrow. What size do you take?" Chas said he wore size
nines, so Drew went into the kitchen to check with Joan on Bobs shoe-size. They were in
luck, and soon Chas was walking back and forth around the yard testing out a pair of Bobs
best Army Surplus, high-sided boots . They were an excellent fit. And soon he and Drew
were dressed for their task in coveralls, helmets and boots.
Since the professor didnt ride horses, Drew drove them out the twenty miles to the
bluff in an elderly Land Rover, which bumped and bounced them around quite sicken-
ingly. They were both relieved to climb painfully out of it when they reached the outcrop
half an hour later. This time, instead of going anywhere near the caves, Drew hefted the
harness bags and canopy-packs around to the edge of a vertical cliff, which was nearly
three hundred and fifty feet tall at its highest point.
Chas quailed at the sight of this fearsome drop, but Drew led the way down to a
place that was a little less than that height. Even this seemed to Chas a terribly long way
to plummet, but he tried to hide his terror. Heights had never really troubled him much
until now, but the idea of cold-bloodedly leaping off a precipice into space, with a very
flimsy-looking rectangle of nylon-silk between himself and certain death, almost froze the
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blood in his veins!
He had experienced no qualms about flying six or seven miles high in a ]umbo-]et for
twenty-eight hours, because he had at least felt a solid floor beneath his feet. And even if
the plane had run into trouble, he would at least have had time to say a quick prayer or
two - in between screams! But, having come thus far, he had no choice but to see it
through. A true Scot nvI fled from danger! Or so his father had always dinned into
him. Chas wished fervently that his long-dead father could be resurrected there and then,
to make the ]ump wI!n him!
Right, Chas!" cried Drew, dumping the parachutes and bag holding a coil of rope
and a climbing-harness on the ground. !m going to help you put your gear on first, then
!ll put on my own. Then ! want you to watch carefully everything ! do! But first !m going
to throw down a rappelling line so that ! can pull myself back up without walking a couple
of miles around the side of the bluff!" After strapping on a climbing-harness and chest-
box, and he looping one end of the long high-strength nylon rope around a nearby rock-
pinnacle, he then dropped the rest of it down the cliff face, carefully padding the sharp
cliff edge beneath it with the folded rope-bag.
Now he picked up another climbing-harness and a parachute-harness and helped
Chas into them, checking all the fastenings and tightening the straps. This done, Drew,
did the same for himself with the second harness. Next, he attached the bridle-apparatus
that connected Chass canopy lines to the shoulder-straps of his harness, and repeated all
the same procedure with his own canopy and harness with Chass fumbling help. And
finally, he produced two sets of knee and elbow pads, and again helped his pupil with his,
before putting on his own.
"Right!" he said at last. Now were Ia) ! IumDI! !m going to do a few ]umps
now, and ! want you to watch everything ! do. And ! man eVeryIn1ng, OK? Are you
right?" he grinned, patting Chas on the back. Dyou trust me, mate?"
Ahve vI) faith in ye, Andrae!" said Chas. Even W! a crazy leap like this!"
Then call it a Lap / FaI!n1" replied Drew, with another confident smile.
Taking the pilot chute and line in his gloved hands, Drew stepped up to the edge of
the cliff. OK, Chas! Watch closely now, here ! go!" !n a quick practiced movement he
threw the pilot-chute high and outwards away from him, and with his body held erect and
his chin held high, he ]umped from the cliff edge, pushing himself up and out with both
feet. As he fell feet first, the tether-line tugged the pilot-chute opened almost instantly
into a metre-wide canopy, and this in turn pulled his canopy free from its velcro backpack
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to blossom like a large rectangular flower nine feet above his head. This instantly arrested
his downward plunge and the harness straps ]erked him almost to a momentary standstill.
The rest of the descent was so gentle that he landed easily on both feet, and immediately
pulled the canopy down toward him and rolled it into a bundle.
How about that, mate? Wasnt too bloody difficult, was it?" he shouted up to Chas,
who had watched the whole procedure in astonishment from the cliff-edge. !m coming
back up again now. Youd better watch !nIs, too!"
This time he took the rope and fed it through the rack-like device strapped to his
chest, and with this he was able to haul himself up the rope and pause at any time without
fear of sliding backwards. He could have employed a more complex system which would
have enabled him to virtually walk" up the rope, lifting one foot and then the other. But
it would only have been an added complication to all the parachute-harness, and, since he
could rest at any time, he could handle this simpler hand-over-hand rope-hauling method
quite comfortably. He hoped the professor would find it so, too - particularly since he was
already built like an orangutan! Complete with red hair, whiskers, and long powerful
arms!
Finally he reached the top, and the professor was surprised to note that Drew was
barely panting after the 250-foot climb! `Tnngs Inna IK sa Da, a/!I a1 Chas thought
to himself. !n fact it IK almost like childs play - though he was not fooled by Drews
almost casual, practiced ease. Obviously there was a knack to it all that could only come
by a great deal of experience! However, he felt confident that he could give a respectable
account of himself!
Drew explained all that he had done in detail and answered all Chass questions
simply and succinctly. Then, ]ust to run Chas through it all again, a made a second
descent and ascent, followed by a third. By this time the repeated climbs back up were
beginning to weary him, so he decided that it was now time for Chas to give it a go.
Now its )uI turn, professor!" he gasped, when he finally dragged himself up over
the ledge for the third time, panting and sweating. !f you can ]ust do it once or twice
successfully, you can ]ump with us down the shaft.
However, if you dont want to do it -at any time - please dont be afraid to say so!
Thats the NumDI On PuI about this caper. Nobody nas to do it if they dont feel
confident! We wont think any the worse of you if you decide to back off, sir!" he said
with more than a hint of respect creeping into his tone. The very fact that youve come
this far with us, speaks volumes for your courage, sir, so its entirely )uI call!"
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Chas said nothing immediately. !nstead he eyed Drew gravely, then he walked to
the edge of the cliff and looked down thoughtfully. After a moment of pondering and
stroking his red and gray beard, he came to a decision. Ahll bluidy do it, Andrae!" he
said, drawing himself up to his full height and sticking out his chin. What kind of a
Scotsman wad ever walk awa from sech a challenge! Ahll no mak a craven cooward o
masel - in front omasel! Thats the pairt that coonts wi a mon! Can he live wihimsel
after turnin his back on a wee bit danger?" He grinned then, his flinty blue eyes twinkling.
Ahll no let mahsel be bettered by a pair o loony young bairns such as yersel and yon
Harold!"
And so saying, he stepped boldly up to the cliff-edge with his pilot-chute clutched in
his hand. Richt!" he boomed. What dae ah do noo? - Ah! Dinna bother, Ah recall ]ust
fine!" And before Drew had the chance to advise him he flung the pilot-chute up and
away and, with his chin pointing arrogantly heavenward, he launched himself forward in
an single agile bound! Drew was astounded at the sheer guts of the older man. He
rushed to the side of the cliff in time to see the professors canopy unfurling gracefully into
a fluted and colourful rectangle, and then he heard the professors voice bellowing out the
famous words of the Skye Boat-Song: Bonn1e CnarI1es noo awa. 5a1eIy ower Ine
1r1endIy ma1n.!
Well, !ll be blowed!" he laughed aloud to himself. Just wait till Errol hears about
In1s! Hell never believe me!"
And later that afternoon, whilst the professor en]oyed a well-deserved shower, Errol
did hear about it - in full detail - and with his ]aw hanging slackly in stupefaction, as Drew
told him of the professors amazing base-]umping efforts. Not ]ust the once, but Inree
consecutive times, and each time hauling himself back up the cliff, seemingly without any
great effort, by means of the rope and chest-box.
Nate!" said Drew his face aglow with admiration. That dear old bloke is a DImIng
maIvI! ! would have put him down as a perfect candidate for a bloody coronary, if
nothing else, but he ]ust sailed through it all like a bloody champ! Chas is as game as
bloody Ned Kelly, old son, and we couldnt have picked a better cobber to go with us in a
million years!"
Errol sat there on the settee marveling at Drews enthusiasm. Wow! He sure
seems to have passed through Boot Camp with flying colours, buddy! ! only wish ! could
have been there to see it for myself! Gee! Thats the greatest piece of news ! heard all
week!
Anyhow," he continued, !m getting up tomorrow, Drew, regardless of any god-
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damn thing the medic says. Ny leg feels ]ust fine now, so !m n! gonna let this fleabite
hold us back any longer!"
Drew stared at him hard. Are you IaII) suI, mate?" he asked. We dont want you
to come down sick once were heading down below! !f youll ]ust..."
But Errol wouldnt listen to any arguments. Ao way, old buddy! ! made up my
mind, and nobody - but AOBOOY - is about to change it for me!" he said firmly. W
DIv a! Dawn1 and all that ]azz! End of goddamn story!"
Drew gazed at his friend hard and long. Well, not at dawn, old mate." he said
finally, with a smile. Give us a bloody break, you stubborn bastard!"
They heard the phone ring and Joan appeared with the walk-around phone. !ts
some chap for you, Drew." She said. ! think he said he was from the airport at Lon-
greach.." Drew thanked her and quickly took the phone. !t was Gabriel from the chute-
packing workshop.
H), DIw1 Gabes voice sounded pretty cheerful. Just thought youd like to know
that ! got hold of those hardware guys you asked about! ! struck it lucky, and they ]ust
arrived on the afternoon freight-flight from Brissie! Ex-army types - Nr. Smith and Nr.
Wesson! Hows that grab you for service, eh, mate!"
Before Drew could express his amazement and delight, Gabe went on: Listen,
Drew. ! can save you a trip, mate. !ve gotta go up to Winton in around half an hours
time, so if its any help, ! can run them up to meet you, while !m out that way? Suit you?"
He spoke in this cryptic manner in case anyone was listening in
!t suited Drew fine. Whats the damage incidentally, Gabe? !f its within reason, !
can fix you up when you call! Cash on the barrel suit you?"
Gabe said thatd be ]ust the shot, and that the damage came to six-hundred bucks
even. And for C.O.D. hed pay the Goods and Service Tax himself.
Drew chuckled at that. Pigs bum you would!" he laughed. OK, mate, !ll have the
brass ready when you and our friends get here! Nice doing business with you. See you
later, old chum!"
As he rang off he noticed Errols inquiring stare. That was the Artilleryman!" he
said, with a broad wink behind Chass back. Nission accomplished!"
Errol beamed back at him. WnaI? he cried. Already? A guy like you is wasted
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around here, buddy! You could make a goddamn fortune in Detroit!"
Yair?" asked Drew with a wide grin. But not as bloody H1I-man ! hope!"
!t was around this point in time that Drew suddenly realized that thanks to all the
rigmarole about Errols leg in]ury, and initiating Chas into the thrills of base-]umping, they
had all apparently overlooked a couple of rather important absences from their midst!
Hey! Errol! Where the hell have the gIIIs vanished to? ! havent clapped eyes on them all
day! ! hope they havent upped and left, because of all the boredom, have they?"
Errol looked equally alarmed for a moment. H)1 Yan, Drew! Youre IIgn!, buddy!
Where the blue blazes an they D ?" Then his face creased into an impish smile. Only
kidding, buddy! Actually they went off to Longreach with Bob and his two young girls in
the family car, while you were out earlier this morning, to do a bit of shopping! Bob was
going anyhow to do a spot of business, and his daughters had to do some shopping for
Joan, so Hazel and Narianne bummed a lift with them to do a tad of personal shopping of
their own! Surprised you didnt run into them along the way, bro?"
No, didnt see em at all," Drew replied a little abstracted, ! only went to the sheds
up by the airport! But, speaking of the girls makes me wonder about what their xp-
!a!Ins are regarding this little expedition of ours! Know what ! mean? Do they expect to
come down below with us, or will they be happy enough looking out for us from the big
chamber? Have they mentioned anything about it to you, Errol?"
Errol pondered this. Now you come to mention it, buddy - no they havent, but !
guess its something were gonna have to clear up with them, pronto! We dont want
everybody down the hole, then find theres no way we can get back up if its a blind alley!
We have to have a base-crew up top to keep us supplied, or to raise the alarm if we get
into a ]am! ! feel thats one pretty important ]ob, and it should be given to them! Lets
face it, Drew, with the best will in the world, Bob isnt going to be able to spend aII his time
hanging around that chamber. Hes got this ranch to operate, not to mention a family to
look after!"
PIpI!)! 5!a!In! Anything but bloody Rancn, mate!" corrected Drew, a
touch curtly. Then he went on, No, youre right about Bob, Errol, we cant keep on
hogging him to ourselves, worst luck! Whos gonna fly the chopper if youre down below
and we need something from here - or wherever - in a hell of a hurry? !t looks like it could
present a bit of a problem, couldnt it?"
Hmmm," mused Errol, stroking his chin thoughtfully. !ts beginning to sound like
we need a !nII chopper pilot, buddy! Any bright ideas? We dont have the time to waste
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trying to teach one of the girls to fly the goddamn thing, and were bound to need stuff
ferried in fairly regularly.. Oh, and that reminds me, Drew! ! was thinking that mebbe we
could use a small lighting-generator down there in the chamber - plus a whole enormous
heap of rope and some easy method of lowering stuff down the shaft - a hand-windlass,
or mebbe a power-winch? Waddaya think?"
Drew was suddenly filled with wild enthusiasm. Yair! ! think youre on to something
there, Errol, old son! Perhaps we dont really n the chutes after all! The girls could
IwI us down on a long rope! Though it wouldnt be as fast to get down, would it? Still,
it wuI be ]ust the shot for getting our gaI down to us! But where the hell are we going
to find miles of strong, thin rope?" He too rubbed his chin in puzzlement. Then after
another long pause, he suddenly slapped his forehead with a painful smack. BI)
II!1 he cried in self-reproach. How could a man be so blooming thick!"
Why?" asked Errol in surprise, "Whats happened?"
Oh, ! only forgot completely wn ! am, and what the /amII) DusInss is all about!"
grinned Drew. Then, when Errol and Chas still stared at him blankly, he said,
Nining, you dummies, N!N!NG! You know! Digging bloody big shafts down into
the earth, and using cables and ropes to operate the elevators, and air and water-hoses to
ventilate and cool them! Just think of the Western Deep mine in South Africa! FuI
KIIm!Is wn! What sort of lines, cables and hoses must !n) use? Our own Clan-
Ranald mines are nearly half that depth and still going down! But the big thing is that they
have all the same gear - in abundance! And get this!" he laughed, thumbing his chest.
1m the ma]or shareholder of the wnI bloody box and dice!"
His companions stared at him in amazement.
Errol was first to reply. Why the heck didnt we think about that before?" he asked.
We couldve been halfway down to the interior by now! Hell! This is ]ust what the doctor
ordered! Why are you still sitting there, Drew! Get on the goddamn horn to your CEO or
whoevers in charge, buddy, and order up - B!GT!NE! Why, man, we could have.."
But here Chas interrupted him. Er, may Ah put in a wee word before ye get too
carried awa wi yeresels! Yell ken o course that any such help frae yer mining company,
Drew, will mean that yell hae tae tell them what yer up tae? The whaule thing will nae
be a secret ony mair once ye eenvolve big business in it! Theyll be wantintae send doon
their ain geologists an surveyors wi us tae see whats doon below.. An also theres the
wee maitter of it bein a National Pairk, too, that ye might want tae bear in mind! Ahm
sure ye wouldnae want the bluidy Government tae come snoopin aroond, would ye!" He
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stared at them both earnestly. Ahm no throwin cauld water on yer scheme, but ye might
conseedair approoching it wi a bit of canny circumspaiction! Thats all Ahm tryin tae
point oot tae ye!"
Youre absolutely right, sir!" said Drew, his eyes shining with an even greater re-
spect for his erstwhile tutor. ! guess we still have lot to learn from you! !ll take every bit
of advice you can offer from now on, professor! Now! The big problem is how ! can
wheedle Doug Edwards into kitting us out with what we need, without arousing undue
attention around the rest of the firm as to what were up to? Doug already knows about
the adventure side of this, so !ll see that he keeps it quiet - he owes me a few favours
anyhow!" He wrapped himself in a cloak of silent thought for a while, then he asked Errol
to make up a list of everything they might need.
!ll try to get the whole lot delivered in one hit if possible." he said, Then we wont
have too many outsiders sticky-beaking into our affairs!"
What on airth is a stickybeak"?" interrupted Chas, with a rare grin. Nan, Ahve
obviously got an awful lot tae lairn aboot yer bluidy lingo!" Drew grinned at him and said
that it simply meant a Nosey-Parker" in Aussie slang-]argon.
Oh, aye!" said Chas. Ah see yer meaning noo, clear enough! Ahll hae tae mind
mahsel of yon expraission for mah students next tairm!"
Then, suddenly there was a great hullaballoo from the direction of the yard, and a
moment or two later, the two young women burst into the room, whilst Bob and his
daughters humped a couple of dozen white plastic supermarket-bags into the kitchen
behind them from a big late-model four-wheel drive parked at the foot of the verandah
steps. Hazel and Narianne were also burdened with, which they dumped on the floor
before throwing themselves into the spare settee.
Whooee!" gasped Hazel. Boy! Uts has hot as Haides out there! Dunno how you
Queenslenders cn stend ut! Thenk God for air-cnditioning! Croikey Deck! Hev we hed a
busy day!"
Narianne nodded in silent agreement and fanned herself vigorously with a maga-
zine. At least your stores and cars are all air-conditioned, so it uI have been worse!"
she said. But we had to ask Bob to switch it on in the car for us! !t was like driving
through a furnace with all the car-windows down! He doesnt seem to feel the heat! Still
! dont suppose you get too many DIIzzaIs oot here, so ! guess thats sm!nIng to be
grateful aboot!"
Looks like you ]ust about bought out the godamn town!" Said Errol, looking at the
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array of bags and packages by the door. Hope you havent got any frozen stuff in that
lot!"
Hazel suddenly sat up. Oh, yeah! We nv, too! Thenks for remoinding me!" She
went to grab up some of the shopping bags, but Errol leapt up off the settee to her aid.
Hey! Hey! Allow me, maam!" he cried. Then between them, he and Hazel ]ovially humped
the perishables down to the trailer for stowage into its fridge. As they vanished through
the door, Drew and Chas gaped at each other.
Well! Blow me down!" exclaimed Drew, in frank astonishment. The blokes been
swinging the bloody lead on us, Chas! Right! Errol comes off the Sick-List" as from this
moment! No more skiving off and holding us all up! The show gets back on the road
tomorrow!"
Aye," opined Chas, philosophically. !ts amazing hoo fast an ailin mannie can come
back frae Deiths Door when a bonnie lass crooks heir wee pinkie at him!"
Narianne and Drew burst into a unanimous gale of laughter together at the professors
latest pearl of Gaelic wisdom. And when Errol eventually reappeared, looking rather red-
faced and slightly disheveled, he caught the heaviest earful of mockery hed ever received
in his young life.
Later, when they all sat together with Bob and the kids, whilst Joan and her elder girl
once again did their feeding the five-thousand" culinary miracle, Drew heard a vehicle
drive into the yard outside. !ts for me!" he told Bob, who was ]ust rising to his feet to
check who might be visiting them. Then he went outside into the gathering gloom and
found Gabe halfway up the back steps bearing a package under his arm. Ah! Good on
you, mate!" he said as Gabe placed the parcel on the top step. !ve got the cash here for
you, Gabe! Six hundred, you said, right?" he pulled his thick wallet out of the back-pocket
of his ]eans. He quickly counted out three $100 and six $50 bills, then added another one
on top of the pile.
Hey! Hang about, Drew!" said Gabe. Youve given me fifty too much, mate! You
know ! always stick to the quote!"
Pipe down!" hissed Drew, waving his hands downward. ! dont want Bob or Joan
to know anything about this about this! The extras for the IIvI), you idiot!"
Gabe grinned. OK, mate! You win! Anytime ! can help again, you only have to sing
out!"
Then, as Gabe turned back to his ute, a sudden idea struck Drew. You wouldnt
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know where ! could get hold of some m!IIgIaI DaIIns, by any chance, would you,
Gabe?" he called softly. You know the sort ! mean. Theyre about six feet or so across,
and they use èm for sending instruments and radios up into the upper atmosphere to
check out the temperature and wind-velocity?"
Oh, !nm! Yair!" said Gabe. ! think ! could dig some up for you, mate! How many
dyou reckon youll need?"
Drew pondered. Hmmmm. about a dozen, maybe? How would that be? Could you
raise that many, do you think?"
See how ! go, Drew!" said Gabe. !ll give you a bell tomorrow arvo, mate!"
Okay!" said Drew, Tomorrow afternoonll do fine! But no later if you can avoid it, !
might be away for a fair while after that!"
Gabe grinned up at him and wished him a ripper of a holiday. Night even have one
meself, too, thanks to )u, mate!" Then he walked down the steps, got into his ute, and
with a cheery wave, he zoomed off down the driveway into the night.
Neither Joan or Bob quizzed Drew about his visitor or what was in the parcel under
his arm, when he went back inside and headed for his room. He was back in his seat ]ust
in time for the dessert Joan was serving. !t was his favorite - sliced strawberries covered
with vanilla ice-cream, liberally doused with chocolate topping!
Later, in the privacy of his bedroom, Drew and Errol examined the three brand-new
police-special revolvers, still covered in protective red grease. There was also several
boxes of ammunition. very nice work, buddy!" said Errol, hefting one of the revolvers
thoughtfully. Lets ]ust hope that we never need to use èm, eh?"
The following morning, after burning the midnight oil deep in intensive thought,
and sending a great deal of time composing a lengthy, carefully-worded email letter to
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Doug Edwards private email address, Drew arose rather later than usual. After apologiz-
ing ab]ectly to Joan, who then prepared him a belated breakfast, which he ate ravenously,
he called the others into the lounge room for a final round table discussion. He asked
them all to bring note pads and pens with them as there would be a good deal to remem-
ber.
Soon they were all seated around Joans huge pullout dining table, including Bob
whose involvement would still be highly necessary, even if in a fairly minor role. Those
present were Drew, Errol, Chas, Hazel, Narianne, Bob, and for once, even Joan, herself.
Young Charlie would also be called in from his radio-schooling, when his role was to be
discussed.
When everyone was present and settled down, Drew opened the proceedings by
informing them that he had finally decided it was time for them to begin the expedition,
but before they turned a wheel, there were many points to be hammered out which would
occupy them for most of the day. Therefore, the expedition would be launched first thing
the next morning. Regardless of the state of the weather or any other considerations.
!t really Is a case of 5)n) I !n Busn now!" he announced seriously, Other-
wise we could all be pussyfooting around here for evermore, with all sorts of delays and
raising all kinds of excuses for not getting on with it!" He stared around at their expectant
faces. Well, folks all thats finished now! Were off tomorrow, come Hell or High Water!
Now then, to get down to cases. Lets get a few things straight, right here at the outset!
The actual team who will be going down the shaft, are myself, Errol and the Professor!
Anybody got any questions about that?" He paused a moment while this sank in.
Then sure enough, Hazels hand shot up almost furiously. Hi! Whut about us,
Drew? she waved at Narianne beside her. We wure koind of ixpicting to be going down
wuth you! You pulling the old miale-chauvinist stunt on us? Ef so, you can go and.."
But Drew headed her of before she could blurt out something she might later regret
He risked a quick glance at Errol and saw he was glaring quite angrily at her
Dont worry, ladies! We arent leaving you out of the picture! You two are going to
be the DaKDn of the whole operation! Were relying on you girls to keep us going and
supplied - as well as in touch with the world up here. Youre both going to have your work
cut out for you, ladies, you mark my words!
As to not coming down with us - ! never said you wuI D, did !? No! We wanted
you to be In n the expedition, but if we dont have somebody up above to maintain
communications and call out the search-party if necessary, none of us would be going in
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the first place! So, before you start feeling shirty about it all, !d like you to think about
that for a while!" He glanced at Narianne, who hadnt expressed any emotion at all about
this news. What dyou think, Narianne? Are you upset, too?" He gave her his best
innocently wounded smile.
Nuch to his relief, she smiled quietly and shook her head. No, Drew," she said. !t
doesnt worry me either way. Just so long as ! can be involved and useful, thatll be fine!
You dont have to worry aboot me!"
Drew noticed the irritated look that Hazel threw at her friend on hearing this. Hed
have to have a private yarn with her after the meeting!
However, before getting back to the main topic, he now turned his attention to Bob
and Joan. He thanked Bob profusely for his assistance thus far, and for that of his two
yardmen, then he told him that the girls would now be taking over his function, except for
the occasional chopper flights when necessary, but only in emergencies. He realized that
Bob had a cattle property to run, as well as a wife and family to look after, and it was unfair
of them to expect any more of him than he had already done. However, if Joan didnt
mind ]ust a tad more slight inconvenience, maybe shed let him help them to finally get off
on the first leg of the expedition? Then he was a more or less free agent again!
Joan seemed much relieved by this, and it suddenly occurred to him that shed
probably assumed that Bob would be expected to accompany them down the shaft! God
alone knew wna! Bob had let on to her in the privacy of their bedroom!
Bob himself looked a trifle downcast at the news, but Drew knew the mood wouldnt
last long. Bob was like a rubber ball - he soon bounced back into shape. But what Drew
didnt know was that Bob was already contemplating a little expedition of his own, but he
was hiding this from Joan behind his faade of disappointment! He intended to round up
some of the fellers and give the outcrop a thorough going over! Hed already seen the
creature in the volcano-chamber at close quarters, and had expressed his views about
others of the same ilk dwelling in the outcrop tunnels to Drew himself. So once Drew was
out of the way, he would be free to follow up his own little pro]ect! Hed even invested in
an ex-US Army flame-thrower for the purpose. Something hed seen in a WW2 Pacific
War" documentary on Tv, had given him the idea and he was keen to give it a lash!
However, Drew, blissfully unaware of all this, continued on with the meeting. He
now told them of the secret arrangements hed set on foot regarding the involvement of
Clanranald Corporation! Hed found an early response to his late night message to Doug
Edwards whilst checking his computer mail prior to starting the meeting, and Doug was
perfectly happy to render any assistance he could in the way of materials and equipment,
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without disclosing the matter to any of his managers.
Hed figured out a way to account for any unusual store requisitions by creating a
fictitious secret mineral ore-body research pro]ect in North Queensland, which would ac-
tually be a cover for the !nner Earth quest! As long as Drew was prepared to append his
signature to certain secret papers, thus giving the whole thing legitimacy should their
cover ever be blown, both he and the firm were covered. And since Drew was, in effect,
still the ex-officio controlling stockholder, and thereby the legitimate owner, nobody would
dare question his role in it.
Thus all their needs by way of materials, equipment, plant, and even manpower
could and would be furnished as of immediately!
This was greeted by a big cheer from all present, but Drew wasnt through yet!
!ve also got another bit of news from Doug thatll cheer you up even further!
Especially you, Errol and Bob! He also says theyve Dugn! the chopper from the
Brisbane hire company, lock stock and barrel, and now hes organized to upgIa it! A
near-new six-seater ]ob, with a long-range fuel tank, is on its way up here - even as we
speak! How does !na! bloody grab you all?" Then, noting Joans frown, he realized hed
sworn in front of her, and that it had upset her.
Sorry, Num!" he said, looking mournfully sheepish. Slip of the tongue!"
But Bob had no such scruples. You bloody little trimmer, Drew!" he cried, "! was
wondering when you were going to pull your bloody finger out and start showing some of
that famous bloody NacDonnell brain and drive!"
This drew another deprecating scowl from Joan, and Bob wilted visibly before her
basilisk glare of disapproval at his outburst of enthusiastic bad language.
Then they resumed their round table conference - or rather Drew did. OK," he said
briskly. Lets get everything sorted out now, folks, so everybody knows what theyre
supposed to do tomorrow! The new chopper will probably be arriving tomorrow morning
sometime - Doug is going to give me a call when hes organized everything - and well
have a nw pII! to help us ferry the stuff up to Undara!
!ts all right, Errol!" He grinned reassuringly, when he saw his friends look of
dismay. This bloke is someone we can trust - he used to be my Dads private pilot and
chauffeur. !s names Nike Butcher, and hes also an old pal of mIn, too, so he wont go
shooting his mouth off to all and sundry! Dougs given him a nice easy number now
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ferrying v.!.Ps around, and generally making himself useful, so hell be sort on loan to me
for a few days - or however long it takes - while we get ourselves and our gear up to the
volcano."
He paused for a moment, then he said: Oh, yeah! And that reminds me! Hell have
a tidy little load of rope and hose aboard, and a few other odds and sods ! asked Doug to
send us, so the first trip will be ]ust you and me, Bob! Well have to keep the weight
down to a reasonable level! Then once weve got all that heavy haulage" over with,
Nike can come back and collect the rest of you! OK?"
Everyone nodded, except Errol, who was looking a bit puzzled. Hey! What about
me, Drew! ! thought w were a !am! Why arent you taking m to help with the hard
work? ! thought that .."
But before he could get into his verbal stride, Drew replied, Because ! dont want
you to strain that leg any more than you have to, mate! ! want )u as fresh and fit as
possible when we take the plunge! You could easily undo all that good work of healing it
if you start hauling stuff down that fumarole tube, so !d rather not have you putting
yourself in harms way - not ]ust yet, anyhow! G! !na!, Errol?"
He leaned across the table and gave Errol a long keen look. !f you open your
wound up again before we take the dive - well ]ust have to leave you behind! Sorry, old
mate, but ! guess !m in command of this particular outfit, and youll have to get used to
the idea that wna! 1 sa) goes! Right?"
Errol stared back at him, seeing Drew in a totally new light. But he knew Drew was
right. This sort of dangerous undertaking could only have one leader, and Drew was very
definitely 1I! Nor were Errol and Bob the only ones who had noticed a new air of
confidence about Drew. They had all watched him rapidly maturing, almost before their
eyes, from a callow fresh-faced young buck straight out of university into a strong and
resolutely firm and determined young man. Drew would need all these qualities and
even more strength of character in the grim and unimaginably fearsome days and months
that lay, as yet unforeseen, before them!
He now looked over at Hazel. How do you feel about things now, Hazel?" he asked.
Are you still unhappy about us not taking you with us? ! dont want you to be mopsing
around up here feeling teed off with me! ! want you and Narianne to be right on the ball
and ready for any emergency, once were down that hole! ! hate to have to say this in
such a blunt way, but !f you dont think you can hack it without feeling crapped off, !d
rather you didnt come at all! !ts )uI call, Hazel, ! dont want to..."
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Oh, forgit about my stupidity, Drew!" she said. ! reulize now thet you hed ut all
plenned out ahead. !ll be heppy to do what ! can from up here with Narianne. So dont
geve ut a sicond thought! Wull be roight behoind you, wont we, Narianne?"
Sure we will!" said the Canadian girl. Only to glad to be of use! We wont let you
doon, Drew!"
Drew was glad that Hazel seemed to have come around. !t would have been a pity
to have left her kicking her heels in boredom and antipathy around the homestead. Joan
wouldnt have en]oyed it much either. But the problem had needed to be solved -one way
or the other - before things went any further.
Great stuff!" he said, giving them both a big smile apiece. !m glad we got that
sorted! Now for the more technical details.."
He then went into all the ideas hed had regarding the maintenance of their group
for as long and far as possible after they reached the reservoir chamber. They would first
need to build up some kind of supply-base there, to keep them going whilst they found
the next downward path or shaft. !t might mean that one of the three would have to stay
there for a while until the next leg had been decided upon. But it would also be their fall-
back position in the event they found themselves unable to go any further.
They would hopefully have power down there for lighting and any electrical gear.
Nike would have a portable diesel generator on the chopper tomorrow as well as a por-
table air-compressor. The flexible rubber tubing would be used to supply both air and
water from the big chamber as far as they could take it into the depths. Hopefully, there
would be at least a couple of miles of it in the chopper, as well as a similar length of electric
cable, and rope, too. And he would be bringing even more within a couple of days. They
would also need to get some color-gas containers for heating and cooking purposes, as
cold food would soon become very morale-sapping in such alien surroundings!
Here the professor had a couple of questions. Hoo dye ken that itll be cauId doon
thiere at only two miles, Drew - if Ah may mak sae bold as tae ask? As fair as Ah ken, itll
be maire likely as hoat as Hades - though Ah weel admeet, Ah nav heird that the
temperature may weel s!aII! !a ga n agaIn after aboot twenty miles or so - accordin
tae the latest theory thats gangin the roonds, ]ust noo! Och Ay! And what aboot the
pra1ssure doon there, too? Surely as ye get closer tae the center o graveety, the praissure
is boond tae encrease, baith in the roacks and in the air itsel - always proveeding there is
any air doon thiere!"
Ah, Professor!" said Drew, Youre only assumIng all that! Just as were assuming
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that the gravitational field will decrease as we approach its center! Were firmly con-
vinced that the center of gravity in a hollow planet or shell will be midway through the
spherical crust - a spnI / gIavI!a!In within the thickness of the shell rather than a
single n!IaI pIn! of gravity at the globes exact center! Our theory is that the gravity of
the hollow inner space within the Earths shell will dwindle away to zero by the time one
comes to the central vacuum of the sphere! !n other words you could say: "As above, so
below"!"
But, man!" cried Chas. Youre workin enteerely upon surmise and ."
However, Drew continued on, coolly ignoring the professors attempts to inter]ect.
And as for the temperature-depth increase, ! feel confident that itll begin to fall again a
lot sooner than you apparently do. ! believe that most of the worlds hot-spots" and
magma lakes are probably much shallower than is currently assumed by geological sci-
ence! The orthodox academics place it a lot deeper simply because they are convinced
that the Earths interior is filled with molten magma, and therefore it is constantly seeping
upward into the crust and forming these deep reservoirs. But if you look at it from the
hollow planet aspect, this no longer applies at all! The only source of magma and lava is
from inter-plate tectonic friction within the crustal shell! So my own prediction is that it will
be localized to those tectonic areas and not very far below the surface!"
Again the professor made an abortive attempt to inter]ect, but again he was over-
ridden by Drew.
Ny view is that volcanoes are like pimples on the Earths outer skin and that the
tectonic areas can be likened to patches of inflammation in that skin. Thus the lava
represents the pus that is created by this inflammation" or friction-heat, and is exuded or
vented by means of eruption of the volcano-pimples, ]ust like a boil might grow and burst
on your skin to release the pent-up heat and matter! Nw can you see my point, Chas?
W could ]ust as easily be correct as )u and the geological establishment! Lets face it!
Neither side has ever yet been down deep enough to observe the actually !Iu state of
affairs. Were aII gussIng an !nIIzIng, wouldnt you agree? Which is precisely why
were going down there ourselves! Well soon Knw whose right and whose wrong, pro-
fessor! Then you can go home to Edinburgh and write a great tome on the sub]ect and
give lectures about it from personal, eye-witness experience! !magine it, Chas! You could
become the wIIs IaIng au!nII!) on the brand-new, aDsIu!I)- pIvn, geoIog1caI
IruIn!"
Chas was obviously shaken by this and found Drews argument hard to refute. Hed
heard suggestions and hypotheses to this general effect before, but so poorly-presented
that hed been able to easily trample them underfoot with his well-rehearsed didactic,
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pedagogical omniscience. But Drews plain and unvarnished bluntness regarding guess-
work and theory had hit him hard right where he lived. He once again found himself
filled with admiration for this arrogant young upstart whom he had somehow managed to
fashion in his own stubborn image. But Drew was a m1rror image! Everything in nIs
philosophy was the IvIs of Chass own. However, being the older and hopefully wiser
of the two, Chas now looked forward eagerly to seeing who would emerge the victor. The
tutor or the pupil? Secretly, and much to his own surprise, in a paternal way he found
himself hoping that it would be Drew!
Errol, alas, in the professors view, was merely a II!!an!, a dabbler around the
fringes. He absorbed knowledge readily enough, but in a spng-IIK fashion. !t had to be
squz out of him to be usefully applied. True, hed been an excellent scholar at the
university, and possessed a fine brain, but he didnt seem to employ it to anything like the
extent that Drew did his own. But Chas didnt dismiss him. Though Errol was essentially
an adventurer who was in this enterprise purely for the thrill and excitement of discovery,
he I have the qualities of vII-ma)-aI courage and loyalty, and he seemed happy to
follow and support Drew wherever he led him.
Errols other ma]or asset was his undoubted skill with mechanics and other practical
things. !n all, he made a very fitting and valuable lieutenant to Drews captaincy! Even
though Chas did find his witty chaff and banter extremely irritating at times, particularly
when he called him Prof"! Chas regarded himself as being a sort of DaIwInIan figure,
accompanying them upon their truly BagI-like voyage of discovery to seek verification
for his own personal beliefs.
But he wouldnt be a passngI! He intended to pull his weight during the ]ourney
that lay ahead. At fifty-three, Professor Dinwiddie felt fit and healthy and was still in the
prime of his life. He knew that the two young men, who were still in their early twenties,
regarded him as an old man, stuck in his ways and out of condition through years of
academic life, but he had hidden reserves of hereditary highland strength and tenacity
which they had never yet seen him display - unless they had secretly watched him prac-
ticing with his shot-putting and caber-tossing, or had attended the annual September
Braemar Gathering of the clans to vie with each other in tests of physical strength and
endurance, dancing, and musical ability!
Suddenly Chas realized that the others were all looking at him expectantly, Drew
especially, since he was anticipating a fierce rebuttal of all he had said. But the wise
middle-aged sage elected to keep his own counsel on this occasion. !nstead, he re-
sponded agreeably to everything Drew had said, and added that he, like themselves,
would wait and see with his own eyes what lay many miles beneath their feet.
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When Chas had said his rather astonishing piece, Drew looked around the table and
asked if anyone else had anything to add or to ask. Only one hand was raised. !t was
Joan. She wanted to know if she could be excused since it was close to Smoko" time,
and she had work to do in the kitchen, and also wished to look in on her two daughters
who were supposed to be studying hard in the schoolroom. She also wanted to know if
Drew was ready to talk to young Charlie yet, since he had stayed home today from his
]ackeroo-training to be on hand when needed.
Oh, sure, Num!" cried Drew, slapping a chiding hand to his forehead for his forget-
fulness. Sorry, ! almost forgot poor Charlie! Wheel him straight in, will you!"
Joan went out and a moment later Charlies eager face appeared around the door-
way. Num says you wanna talk to me, Drew? Can ! come in now?"
Drew grinned at him, and waved him to his Nums recently-vacated chair. Charlie,
! must apologize to you if weve neglected you a bit ]ust lately, but weve been flat out like
a lizard drinking, trying to get this show off - or rather - UNDP - the ground! ! guess you
can understand that, cant you? Anyhow, we intend to start off tomorrow, and !ve got a
special duty for you to do while were gone! ! want )u to be our contact with the outside
world! ! want you to use my computer as a sort of extra brain" for us, and to keep an eye
on my email-inbox - and from time to time, !ll want you to send u! emails for me, too!
Can you do that?"
Charlie was elated at the idea. You mean ! can use your brand-new computer,
Drew? Wowee! Thats !III/I! Gee, thanks Drew, itll be fantastic!"
Drew had to hasten to point out that Charlie hadnt been granted an open license to
go mad with his computer. On the contrary, he wanted him to take it all as seriously as he
knew how. Hed probably be asking Charlie to carry out a few pretty difficult searches and
assignments relating to Geology and such-like sub]ects, so hed need to keep his wits
about him, and concentrate hard on anything he was asked to do.
Charlie promised that he would, and that hed do his very best. Then something
occurred to him that most of the others present hadnt even considered. How would Drew
be able to contact him if he was miles under the ground, and why didnt Drew simply take
a portable computer down with him?
This question pleased Drew, and reinforced his faith in the youngsters common-
sense. Well, if we did that, Charlie, ! doubt if wed be able to plug it into any phone-lines
down there, nor would we be able to bounce signals off a satellite either! Dyou g! me,
mate?"
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Then when he saw that Charlie understood perfectly, he went on, So what well
have to do is use our radiophones up the shaft to tell Hazel and Narianne what we want to
know, or what message we want to send, and then they can call you by radio on the
schoolroom-set, and you can send them the replies back the same way. Do you savvy
what !m getting at, now, Chuck?" he asked, using Joans own pet name for Charlie. !t
means that youll have to be the main link for us by both radio and the computer! OK?
Dyou think youll be able to handle all that?"
Charlies chest visibly swelled with pride and importance at the big ]ob Drew had
given him. Now he would really be a part of the expedition! Ny word, ! will!" he said,
!ll really give it my best shot, Drew, honest! When do ! start?"
Drew grinned at his eager enthusiasm. You can begin !mIIw, Chuck, but if
)uI out for any reason - or you have to go off on a station-errand or message for your
Dad, youll have to show Karen or Tracy how to note down the messages correctly so you
can read them when you get back. OK?" Drew felt that Charlies sisters, Karen who was
nearly thirteen, and Tracy, who was eleven, were both bright young girls and could be
trusted with such a fairly simple task.
However, Bob spoke up at this ]uncture. Dont worry about that side of things,
Drew. !ll let Charlie off his ]ackeroo chores while your down there, ]ust as long as he
doesnt take too much advantage of the situation an start playin silly buggers!" he said,
looking meaningfully at young Charlie. Unfortunately, this latter common Aussie expres-
sion drew another dark and even more meaningful glare from Joan, who had ]ust brought
in a large tray loaded with mugs of hot tea and buttered pikelets - small Australian sweet
pancakes - topped off with strawberry ]am.
The professor rubbed his hands together appreciatively when he saw the refresh-
ments, but he was careful not to make an exhibition of himself as he nibbled at one of the
tasty little treats. Nor did his restraint go unnoticed. Drew and Errol exchanged furtive
smiling glances, whilst Joan looked on happily as Chas waited politely to be offered an-
other pikelet.
Drew decided that they could all afford to relax now as there wasnt a great deal
more to say. The time for talking was really finished. From hereon in it would all be
acI1on, instead of words! At least they were all on the same side now, and even the
professor at last appeared to be academically with them instead of against them! Hed
never imagined this situation could ever have come to pass in all the past four or so years
hed known dear old Din-Dins! Who would have thought it? As Drew sat sipping his tea,
Errol grinned across at him, giving a Thumbs-Up" sign.
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They all rambled off to follow their own pursuits, Drew and Errol to check on the
egroups they belonged to on the !nternet, the professor to wander around the yard and
buildings and glean a little knowledge of outback station life from Bob, the two young
women to their trailer to watch a little Tv and listen to some music - and to discuss their
own feelings about all that had happened and was still to happen - and also to discuss
their private feelings about Drew and Errol! Joan had returned to her home duties as a
housewife and a mother, and was currently busy preparing lunch and her daughters,
having finished their morning studies, were helping her. Thus, an air of peace and relative
quiet had descended upon the homestead
Out of doors, the temperature had once again soared to a furnace heat, and the
horizon, as seen from the slightly cooler shade of the big barn by Chas and Bob, had
become a shimmering mirage of dancing, heated air. What breeze there was like the
draught from a newly-opened furnace-door, and the swirling convection currents of desert
air caused dust-devils to swirl and dance across the sere dry landscape.
This was the first time the professor had seen a willy-willy" although hed read of
them in the outback-detective novels of Arthur Upfield, a famous and prolific Australian
author. Upfields central character was a half-caste aboriginal detective-inspector in the
South Australian police, who had been curiously named NapIn BnapaI!, but was
generally called Bn). Chas had expected to see the large white salt pans and the
mountain ranges Upfield had described in his novels, but that was a thousand miles away
to the southwest. All he saw was a vast plain, its flat, shimmering horizon broken only by
occasional outcrops or buttes of red sandstone, patches of scubby bushes and a few
thinly-leafed eucalyptus. He marveled that the cattle that were the stations livelihood
could find any sustenance in the dead-looking tufts of sun-scorched grass and spinifex
that covered this virtual desert. But Bob assured him that they did. !t was very quiet out
there, the great silence only broken by the cawing of sleek, well-fed carrion crows. There
was no shortage of carrion in such an arid and desolate place!
When he asked if it was always as arid and lifeless as this, Bob told him that he
should come back when the W! arrived to overflow the creeks and rivers and turn the
plain into a virtual inland sea! Floods were the only alternative to drought - unless there
was a bush or grassfire ranging across the landscape! There never seemed to be any
happy medium"! However, after the floods, the back-country bloomed forth lush and
green and the cattle gorged themselves.
He surprisingly recommended Chas to read M) Cun!I), a famous poem by Dorothea
NacKellor, which compared Australias rough and harsh outback to Britains green and
pleasant land. There were several anthologies of Australian verse in the lounge-room
bookcase, and Joan would be glad to find them for him if he wanted to read them. Hed
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learn a lot more about Australia from its great wealth of amazing poetry than he could ever
teach him!
This astonished Chas, who had Bob down as a plain down-to-earth cattleman, who
rarely opened a book or read a newspaper, except to check the prices of livestock and
perhaps the sports-page. Clearly, one shouldnt make snap-]udgements of people!
Then they both heard the roar of a souped-up engine, and by the time they got to
the homestead yard, they were ]ust in time to see a battered Holden utility, bearing a
peeling decal of an angelic sky-diver on the door and part of a name - GaDs 5K)paK -
something or other. Drew had already spotted Gabes ute as he revved up the homesteads
cinder driveway, and was already out on the back steps - wallet in hand, by the time hed
climbed out of the vehicle.
Gday, mate! Howd you go?" called Drew as Gabe went round to the back of his
ute. Thought you were going to give me a yell?" By way of an answer, Gabe lifted out a
long cardboard case, and toted it up the steps. There you go, Drew!" he said dumping
the case against the verandah post. Twelve of the best - as my old headmaster used to
say! Bought èm off the met-guys at the airport! Theyve got a shed full of interestin stuff
there, if youre ever interested!" Drew pulled out one of the large silver coloured bal-
loons, folded up in its plastic package, and checked the details on the label. Yep, Gabe!
Right on the money, mate - youve done it again! So whats this lot going to set me back?"
Gabe nominated a sum far below Drews expectations, and added with a sly grin,
that it included delivery and GST.
Drew happily paid him there and then. Pleasure to do business with you, mate!" he
smiled. Then he noticed Gabe was looking at him expectantly. Whats up, mate? Didnt
! give you enough dough?"
No, thats all fine, Drew! ! was ]ust waitin to see wna! Is you wanted me to get
you!" he said staring at him mischievously.
Drew laughed out loud. Oh, no )u n!, pal! !m all fixed up now, thanks. You
can buzz off and take that bloody holiday you were talking about, now - !ll be away
tomorrow and probably wont be back for a fair while to come!" As things were to turn
out, that parting remark was to be the understatement of the year.
With a loud roar, Gabes ute engine sprang into throbbing life, and his car-stereo
belted out a torrent of strident rock-music. As he fastened his seatbelt, Gabe yelled out
above the racket: See you in Las vegas then, mate! C1ao!" and, with a final backward
wave of his hand, he rocketed away down the driveway at what might well have been
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approaching warp-speed.
Drew shook his head pityingly and replaced the weather-balloon pack in the carton.
! wonder where the hell he IaII) found you lot?" he said, absently addressing the card-
board case. Then he heard the screen-door creak open behind him and Joans voice
complaining ! do wish youd ask that friend of yours to do something to that engine of his,
Drew!"
Drew shook his head again and turned around, ! think thats the trouble, Num! He
already I! Anyhow, not to worry, Num, he wont be round here again for a long time to
come!"
Joan came over to where drew was leaning against the verandah-rails. Tell me
something, son." she said very seriously, Just how dangerous is this expedition going to
be, love? !m worried for you all. Bob hasnt told me much except that youre going down
to see whats underneath an extinct volcano with Errol and the professor. And ! saw those
parachutes that chap brought you, last time he came! But what will happen to you if the
volcano goes off while youre down there? !t really frightens me to think about you all
crawling about in the dark among all that red hot lava and stuff!" Drew had to smile at her
imagination, and had to fight himself not to tell her that he was ]ust as frightened as she
was if the truth were told. !nstead he pulled her leg a little.
Well, yes, it will be a bit dodgy ! expect - but not half as dangerous as flying in a ]et-
plane six or seven miles up, or even driving the car from here to Longreach, come to that!
And as for what happens if the volcano goes off - well, well probably be fired out of there
before the lava can even catch up with us! That why ! got those parachutes! Youve seen
those fighter pilots on Tv who have those special e]ector-seats with parachutes attached
to them, havent you? Well, itll be like !na!! So youve no need to worry!" He grinned at
her reassuringly. But ]ust then Bob and Chas came up the steps. Theyd heard his last
remarks to Joan, and Bob bent down and pulled out one of the weather-balloon packs
which, after reading the label, he waved under Drews nose.
Oh, yair?" he said, laconically. An ! suppose these bloody balloons are a back-up
]ust in case the bloody parachutes dont open, eh?" Even the professor had to grin at
Bobs clever quip, as they both ambled away inside chuckling, to en]oy a nice cold beer.
Joan looked nonplussed at Drew and the carton of weather-balloons. ! dunno, she
said, ! still dont think !m being told the mpI! truth! However, youre a grown man,
now, and weve done our best for you, so ! can only hope that God will look out for you! !
Knw He will, because Bob and ! had you baptized at the chapel in Winton after your dear
Dad, Alasdair, first brought you to us! Do you remember that, Drew?" When she saw him
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shake his head in puzzlement, she added, Well, w I! Your Dad told us to bring you up
as our own child, so, whether you like it or not, youre a baptized Christian!"
Drew was astonished as well as puzzled. But !ve never been near a church since !
was at Charters Towers.." Then it dawned on him that hed been a boarder at a nuIn
college, and he suddenly recalled having to attend services every Sunday there, as well
as taking religious instruction as part of the syllabus!
But surely thats all finished and done with now, Num?" he asked. ! mean !ve
been no angI since then .and.and ! swaI, and .."
But Joan wouldnt hear of his excuses. !t dont matter what youve done, Drew!
Youre still a Dap!Iz CnIIs!Ian! !ts not like ]oining the Cub Scouts or anything like that!
You cant ]ust leave Christianity, and move on to the next thing that takes your fancy! And
as long as !m alive !m going to see to it that God looks after you - even if ! have to pray
for you five times a day like those !ndians do on their little prayer mats, kneeling down all
bent double in their nightshirts!"
MusIIms." said Drew, with a sudden grin as he mentally pictured his Nums verbal
description.
Joan stared at him thunderstruck. but you an! ]oin the Nuslims!" she cried, You
have to be DIn one! ! dont know wna!s to become of you, Drew NacDonnell, ! really
dont! But you can take it from me my lad, youre a Cnr1sI1an! And thats it and all about
it!"
Drew threw up his hands in surrender. OK, Num, )u win! ! am a CnIIs!Ian! FaII
InKum! !ll be whatever you want, Num, if it makes you happy. All right?"
Joan looked much happier then. Thank God for that!" she said piously. !ve actu-
ally heard you n/ss )uI /aI!n after all these years!" She hugged him and kissed him on
the cheek, and Drew hugged her back. Hed had no idea about any of this, but he knew
that hed walk through the fires of Hell itself to make Joan happy.
There and then, at Joans insistence, Drew solemnly promised to trust in God what-
ever happened, and never to forget that He was one of Gods children, and, if he or his
friends were in trouble, to pray to Him for help. Finally satisfied, Joan gave him another
tearfully happy hug before going inside to get the evening meal started.
Everybody decided to have an early night that night, in view of the likelihood of an
early start the next morning as Drew expected Nike to arrive fairly early in order to get up
to Undara and unloaded the heavy stuff before things got too hot.
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However, the anticipation of them final commencing the expedition the next day
kept Drew tossing and turning as he ran over a million things in his mind. Had they got
everything theyd require? Would the chopper arrive on schedule, and would Nike have
everything theyd requested on board? Was he doing the right thing by causing so many
people to sacrifice so much of their time and effort to help fulfill his own personal dream?
What if someone got badly in]ured or lost - or even worse - what if Errol or the professor
g! KIII in the chute-]ump down the shaft? The professor had only done three ]umps -
shouldnt he have coached him a lot harder? What would they find down below? A
blockage? A lake of molten magma?
What if they did strike any of these things, and couldnt get back up the shaft again?
All of these terrors and doubts hovered around him like unseen ghastly spirits, and
he could picture them in his minds eye pointing accusing bony fingers at him in gleeful,
triumphant malevolence! His conscience almost overcame his resolution, and he had to
grapple with himself not to run wildly around the house shouting that hed decided to
scrap the whole idea, because it was far too dangerous! Then he suddenly thought of
Joans revelation that he was a child of God, and of his promise to ask Gods help when he
was troubled.
Suddenly, acting on an overwhelming impulse, he climbed out of bed and knelt
beside it with his head bowed and his hands pressed together before his face. He hadnt
done this since he was a boy, but as he began stumblingly to pray, he found himself
recalling all the prayers hed learned both from Joan and from the minister at his first
college. As he began to intone the freshly-recalled words - OuI Fa!nI, wnIn aI! In
Havn.. Drew felt a wonderful calmness begin to descend upon his troubled mind and
spirit, and his hesitant words became rapidly more confident and meaningful. Then as the
prayers began flowing freely from his lips and from his heart, he knew deep within his soul
that Joan was absolutely right - he WA5 a child of God, and he neednt fear anything evil
or dangerous - either for himself of for his friends! They would all be under Gods
Protection!
Within an hour Drew was fast asleep, deep in that dreamless slumber that comes
with a clear conscience and a contrite, peace-filled heart. What he didnt know was that
Joan had also been praying hard for him and his companions, too.
However, down in the trailer, things were not so peaceful, for either Hazel or Nari-
anne. They too, had retired to their bunks and snuggled under the warm blankets
against the comparatively freezing chill of night. A chill which always follows the hottest of
days in the western outback, ]ust as it does in any other desert region of the world. But
suddenly Hazel had been woken ]ust after midnight by her friends muffled cries of terror.
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As she switched on her bunk bed light, she glanced across and saw Narianne threshing
about violently under her blankets as if fighting off some unseen assailant.
Not knowing if it was a nightmare or a real attack by some kind of nocturnal animal
that had somehow crept into the trailer, Hazel leapt out of bed and flung herself across her
friends writhing body. She couldnt feel any hidden form under the sheets except for
Narianne herself, so she was able to relax on that score, but as Narianne continued to
squirm and struggle, Hazel realized it must be a terrible dream.
However, hard as she tried to waken her friend by shaking her shoulders and calling
her name, Hazel was unable to rouse her from the nightmare. There was only one course
open to her. She ran down to the trailers refrigerator, and opened it. A plastic ]ug of ice-
cold water stood on the top shelf, so she seized it and raced back to Nariannes bed and
after ripping back the bedclothes, in one single coordinated sweep she snatched the top
off the pitcher and flung its contents straight into Nariannes terrified, perspiring face.
The result was instant and traumatic for Narianne, as she sat bolt upright up with a
loud shriek, and her eyes snapped open so wide with the shock that the whites of them
showed starkly all around her pupils in a wild stare of total horror. For a moment she sat
there in her bed staring at Hazel as though she was paralyzed. Then, as her senses
recovered and she saw where she was, she clapped her hands to her face and burst into
tears. Hazel quickly snatched up a towel from the foot of her own bed and began
mopping the water from her friends face, arms, and upper body, then pulling up the still-
dry blankets she wrapped them around Nariannes shuddering shoulders and held her
tightly in her arms.
Narianne huddled against her sobbing deeply for some time until finally she began
to calm down. The sobbing gradually diminished and her breathing became normal again.
Hazel then held Narianne away from herself so that she could see her face. Narianne
now looked tear stained but normal, and the sobbing had stopped.
Croikey Deck!" exclaimed Hazel. You gaive me a rual turn! Though somethend
got ento the triler, en was ettecking you, love! Whut was ut, hon? Some koind of noightmare?
Uf ut wus, ut mustve been a rual haircurler! Sorry about the water, but ! couldnt wike
you up iny other wiy! Aire you OK, now?"
Narianne sniffed and slipped out of the damp bed. Not your fault, Hazel." She said
with the ghost of a grateful smile. !m only glad that you I wake me! !f it had gone on
any longer ! mightve died in my sleep!" And, as Hazel remade her bunk for her with dry
bedding over a plastic tablecloth, she went on to tell her how shed had a terrible vision
about Drew, Errol and the professor being trapped in a sort of big, redly-illuminated
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cavern by a horde of large, slimy lizards.
Just like the one we saw the other day that bit Errol!" she said, with a look of horror
returning to her face.
Then she went on to describe how she and Hazel had somehow entered the cave
whilst this was going on, and the lizards had then turned upon them. She said that there
were also some other, bigger creatures with them that seemed to be their leaders, and
that one of them had grabbed hold of her. !t had been all scaly, and had smelled really
bad, but it was shaped ]ust like a man, only bigger! Then it had spoken to her in some
strange language, as if telling her to keep still, but she wouldnt, and..
There Hazel stopped her with a finger across her lips. Sounds to me loike you ]est
got all the whole theng ]umbled up in your subconscious, hon. What weth thim going
down tomorrow, and !rrol being ettecked, an all thet! ! rickon it wus ]ust a noightmare,
kiddo!" She put a sisterly arm around Nariannes shoulders. Dont worry about ut, gel!
Utll niver heppen! You`ll soon see Oim right! And so wull the fillers be, too! So ]est git
beck ento your bid, end git some sleep now. Right?"
Narianne nodded and lay down wearily in her bed. She hoped Hazel was right. But
Hazel didnt know that Nariannes mother an grandmother had been tribal shamans,
gifted with the awesome, proven ability to see IaI visions of a!uaI future events! How-
ever she finally fell into a deep sleep, undisturbed by further visions.
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PART !!
THf PT
Lasciate ogni speranza voi chentrate"
Abandon hope, all ye who enter here"
Dante Alighieri, !nferno, 3
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The sun had risen well above the horizon when the large red and white helicopter
approached the Undara volcanic Province. The three men aboard it scanned the savanna
woodland country half blinded by its already brilliant light, in spite of the strong sun-
glasses they all wore. Their heads swiveled about from side to side as they peered across
the seemingly endless vista of dry pallid grass and low scrubby trees that hid the parched
red earth of the drought-ridden plateau.
Suddenly the older man seated beside the pilot pointed vigorously earthward to-
ward the sunward side of the wide plexiglass windscreen. ! think ! see it, Nike!" he yelled
to the pilot, above the noise of the big Allison 250-C+7 engine. Over there, about a
quarter-mile to starboard! See?" He leaned across toward the pilots side, ]abbing his
right index finger against the semi-domed glass. That patch of red on top of that tree?
Just above the instrument panel - THERE!" he cried, triumphantly, as the pilot, Nike
Butcher, nodded his head in acknowledgment.
Got it, Bob!" he replied banking the heavily-laden chopper smoothly around to the
right in a descending arc. Even Blind Freddie could pick !na!! What is it? A tablecloth or
a handkerchief? Hard to tell at this distance."
Neither." boomed a deep Australian voice from behind them. !ts Errols treasured
cowboy bandana! He nicked off John Wayne once when he was playin a bit-part in a
Yankee western flick!" Two hands like bears paws gripped the backs of their seats as
Drew NacDonnell hunched his head forward between them to peer out through the wind-
screen.
Pay no heed to him, Nike, hes only kidding!" grinned Bob, still scanning the ground
in front of the aircraft, his eyes searching for the landing-site. There it is, fellers. Right
ahead, in that little clearing." Again he stabbed his finger at the glass. Right beside that
hummock of rock there. Can you put here down in there, Nike? the Jet Ranger fitted in
nicely, but these rotors are a fair bit wider."
The pilot flashed him a white-toothed grin from beneath his bushy greying mous-
tache. Nate, ! could land this crate on the head of a bloody pin!" He brought the helicop-
ter to a hovering standstill at about thirty feet above the treetops, then, glancing from side
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to side he let gently let her drift steadily down, foot by foot.
A gentle bump and a slight momentary rocking motion told them of a safe and
smooth landing. Bob stared out at the nearest tree branches on either side which hadnt
even lost a single leaf. Well, ! take my bloody hat off to you, mate!" he gasped with a
touch of awe. The hands of a bloody master!"
And !ll second that, Bob!" said Drew, as Nike cut the motor then sat back and
yawned, whilst the rotors swished around steadily slower and slower to a final stop.
Nike then stretched his arms and flexed his shoulders for a moment. These bloody
early starts are no good at all for me these days, Drew. Nust be gettina bit over the hill,
mate! Where the hell are we anyhow, out here in bloody Woop Woop, with nothin to see
but miles anmiles of bugger all? ! know its near Undara, but whats so bloody interestin
about this godforsaken place? `Cept a lot of clapped-out old volcanoes and lava tubes? All
! can see is a bloody hole in the ground!"
He leaned backward, unbuckling his seat harness and squinting out at the humped
heap of rocks in front of them. And from here it looks pretty much like the arsehole of the
bloody Empire, come to think of it!"
Drew chuckled at this remark. You could very well be right, old mate! But you
might decided to change your tune when you see whats IaII) down there!"
Outside the choppers air-conditioned interior, the heat was already quite intense. !t
was going to be a real scorcher - despite them being on an elevated plateau 2000 feet
above sea-level. The first place Drew made for was the tent that had been left there
since their last memorable visit to the Undara volcano. Rather to his surprise it was still
quite intact and when he unzipped the flaps and looked inside, the heavy gear that had
been left behind still lay where it had been placed, although a few skinks and other small
specimens of local wildlife, had taken up their abode inside its shady shelter. Fortunately
there were no snakes around - although that wasnt to say they hadnt been in there,
perhaps during the night hours. Snakes abhorred the cold of night so they naturally
sought shelter as the sun went down.
Neanwhile, Bob and Nike had already begun to haul the gear out of the helicopters
passenger compartment. Soon, great coils of tough but soft, flattened plastic hose began
to pile up beside the fumarole hummock, together with large bundles of high tensile
climbing rope and many other assorted items, such as small helium-cylinders and calor-
gas bottles, plastic car-cover sheets and blue tarps with brass eyelets at the sides and
corners. The bigger items, that required careful handling by all three of them, were a
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compact portable electricity-generator and a small air-compressor, which both ran on
diesel fuel. There were also a couple of ]errycans of diesel fuel, too. !n addition there
were several other, lighter items such as the parachute packs and several cartons of canned,
dried, and perishable foods.
Bloody Hell!" exclaimed Nike when he saw the still-growing heap stacking up on
the rocks outside the chopper. No bloody wonder she was playing up a bit when ! tried
to gain some decent altitude! !f !d only watched everything you lot were stacking in
here a bit more closely, !d have made you toss it out again! Her total payloads only
supposed to be 1100-odd pounds, including fuel! Youve got mI than that here - and
thats without counting you two ]okers as well!" He patted the smooth painted aluminum
of the choppers hull. Never mind, youre a still a sweet old bird, aint you, Belle!" he
murmured fondly stroking the machine. Always ready to give that extra fifty percent
over the odds, and go that extra bloody mile! Then he gave the chopper a big sloppy kiss,
and said Whose Daddys bloody little trimmer, then, eh?"
Bob and Drew stood watching this exhibition in amazement. Then Drew turned to
Bob with a grin, and put his hands over his eyes ! dont think we ought to watch any
more of this, Bob," he said, in a hoarse stage-whisper. ! shudder to even imagine wna!
old Nikes likely to get up to next with that chopper!"
Hearing this, Nike turned around and leered at them. At least old Belles not like
my mIssus! ! dont get any backchat from her, and she always does what ! bloody tell her
to do! Anyhow, whats bloody wrong with a feller bein fond of his machine? Didnt you
fellers ever fall in love with your first car when you were teenage kids?"
Bob stared at him in admiration, and said to Drew, You know, mate, hes got !na!
right! ! remember my old FJ Holden! First car ! ever owned when ! was ]ust a young
shaver! ! painted her fire-engine red, an she looked real crash-hot with all the chrome
trim, and ! even painted dummy white sidewalls on her tyres! Why she . "
Yair, right!" said Drew. On mad sod ! can handle, but not Iwo of you! Come on
fellers, give me a bloody break and help me to set up the tripod and the block and tackle,
or well still be here magging away at sundown! Now, where the hell are those rapelling-
harnesses? Hope you remembered to toss èm in the chopper, Bob!" Then, observing the
doubtful look on Bobs face, he cried, Oh, bloody NO! Dont tell me their still lying with
all our scuba-gear and wet suits in your back office, Bob! ! couldnt s!an it!"
Bob looked around the heap, puzzled, then he climbed back inside the helicopters
passenger compartment and fumbled about behind the seats. After a few seconds, he
emerged, beaming triumphantly, holding a cotton sack, and pulled out one of the missing
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items like a stage-con]urer might produce a white rabbit. See, Drew! Nothing wrong
with m) bloody brain! !ll be lookin forward to a public apology on the Brisbane City Hall
steps, mate, after this little ]aunt of yours!"
Well, all right, then." said Drew, with a thankful grin. !ll let you off this time, Bob.
Just dont let it happen again, eh? Errol and ! will s!III need our scuba-gear. What if we
strike a syphon down one of the tunnels and cant get through?
The sort of syphon that Drew referred to was an irritating handicap often encoun-
tered by cavers and pot-holers. Usually it was simply a sudden sharp water-filled dip in a
passage where it passed underneath a section of impermeable rock. Something like the S-
bend in a toilet bowl or under a kitchen sink. The problem was that they could be of
indeterminate length, which made them dangerous to attempt to swim through on a
single lungful of air.
Bob nodded his agreement. Yeah, guess youre right, Drew. Better give Nike a
note for Errol to sling the aqua-gear in, too, when he brings the others up. An your
DaKpaKs, too! ! dont see them here, either!"
Nike wasnt overly impressed at the thought of having to fetch even more gear up -
along with the five remaining passengers. Aw, come n, fellers!" he groaned impatiently.
Give us a bloody break! ! can see this is going to end up taking !nI trips instead of ]ust
the !w you !I me itd take! All right, then." he grunted, rather crankily, leaning into the
cockpit for a note pad and a pen, and thrusting them into Drews hands. Scribble the
bloody note! But for Petes Sake make sure this is all you need, `cause ! wn! be doing a
!nII trip!"
Drew was a little surprised at Nikes shortness of patience, but he duly penned a
quick memo to Errol and handed it back to Nike, without further comment. Then they
hauled the tripod poles and the block and tackle with its long rope, out of the tent, and
began assembling them together above the fumarole opening.
Nike leaned out over the hole as they did so. How far wn does it go, Drew?" he
asked interestedly, his sudden fit of pique evaporating as if by magic. Where does it
actually lead to?"
But when Drew told him about the interior of the volcano, and that this vent had
once blasted out hot sulfur dioxide gas, as well as superheated steam, the pilot took a step
backwards.
Bloody Hell!" he exclaimed. And you and Bob are goin back down inside it?" He
looked at them in open admiration now. Youre either as mad as a two-bob watch, or
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youre a pair of bloody heroes! You wouldnt get me down there for all the rice in China!
What if the bugger goes off again? No thanks, cobbers! You can have that little lot all on
your wn! !ll stick to the wild blue yonder where ! know !m as safe as a bloody bank!"
By this time they had the tripod set up and the block and tackle hanging over the
hole, with the rope threaded around it. Drew stood back and studied the larger items,
wondering if theyd go down it without too much trouble.
Tell, you what, Bob, lets try the generator first. !ts the biggest, so if it goes down
all right, everything else should be a doddle. OK? !ll help you to carry it over, then !ll go
down on my own first, so that ! can guide it from below as you and Nike lower it down, all
right? !ts that bent bit in the vent-tube that bugs me a little. !f we can get it around that,
shell be right for everything else!"
He now put on his climbing harness and ran the rope through the braking-rack on
his chest. Then, straddling the hole, he hauled himself clear of the rocks and began to
lower himself down into the black depths beneath. But he hadnt descended more that a
couple of feet before he suddenly felt someone thrusting something over his head. !t was
Bob who had ]ust realized that they hadnt donned their safety helmets. He waited,
gripping the rope with both hands, while Bob tightened the strap under his chin and
switched on the helmet-lamps, then, with a rueful grin of thanks, he continued his de-
scent uneventfully until he was past the kinked part of the vent-pipe.
Now came the tricky bit. He had to find a really solid foothold for each foot, before
unhitching the strong nylon rope, from his harness. PIgn!1 he shouted. 1m unnK1
Then as the rope vanished upwards, he called up to them to send down the generator.
But for the Iv / MIK," he yelled, dont Iusn it! And try to prevent it from dislodging
any stones! Remember 1M down here, looking UP!"
Bobs voice echoed back down to him. Well, bloody look wnwaI, Drew, you
idiot! Youll soon Knw when the genny gets to your level, when it thumps you on the
helmet! Oh, and Nike says to tell you n loves )u, too!" Drew heard them both laughing
heartily. Then Bob boomed down: OK! Drew, here it comes now!"
Fortunately, the generator was narrower in its depth than in its width, so that it was
rectangular in cross-section rather than square. This made things a lot easier once Drew
was able to reach upward and turn it to suit the space, and in the end, he was able to
clamber down slowly backward, foothold by foothold, whilst still steadying the unit with
one hand. Then suddenly, his foot could find no further purchase and he knew he was
now right above the horizontal gallery. HOLD IT!" he yelled, then he carefully lowered
himself by his hands and dropped, catlike, to the even floor of the passage.
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OKl LOWER AWAY NOW!" He bawled up the vent, and as the generator de-
scended, he steered it carefully down to the floor, but a little to one side of the opening
above him. RIGHT!" he yelled, and at once he unfastened the rope and gave it couple
of sharp tugs. !t then vanished ]erkily up the tube again.
CmpIssI nx!1 came Bobs voice faintly from above. This was a bit smaller than
the generator, and Drew didnt need to climb up to guide it. !t came down quite freely,
the only problem being that someone had left its fuel tank partly full, so Drew found
himself being showered with diesel fuel. However, it too, was soon standing upright
beside the generator. And so it went on, the cylinders of helium and calor-gas, cartons
and other similar items followed in reasonably quick succession, and the gear began to
stack up around the walls of the gallery.
Then there came a pause. Drew heard Bobs voice again echoing down the vent.
Nikes taken off now to fetch the others, Drew! ! can manage the rest, straight down the
vent - So watch out below there, lad - and STAND CLEAR!"
Then bundles of rope came sliding down one after another to flop dustily upon the
gallery floor, and no sooner had Drew dragged these aside, than the long parcelled pack-
ages of plastic hose came thudding down in their place. Drew was surprised at ]ust how
much rope and hose there was! He could only guess, but there must literally be mIIs of
both! Finally an assortment of bits and pieces were sent down tied together in bunches or
as single cartons, via the block and tackle, which Drew had to painstakingly unfasten each
time. Then, after a slight hiatus, the gear was finally followed at last by Bob himself. By
this time, Drew had located the big waterproof hand-torches, so the gallery was brightly lit
by the time Bob touched down.
By Gee!" cried Bob, reeling about in a show of mock-exhaustion. Glad ! dont
have to do that vI) day, son! !m ]ust about bloody shot! Phew!" he sank down on
the stack of rope and hose-bundles, mopping his freely-perspiring brow with a corner of
his tee-shirt, which was already soaked in sweat. Bloody Hell! !ts getting really HOT up
top now, Drew!"
Drew nodded, smiling at him sideways. Yeah! ! know! The scientists reckon its the
bloody SUN that causes it, Bob!" he remarked with heavy Australian irony. Then he
searched around among the cartons until he located a couple of cans of light ale. Here
you go, mate!" he said, tossing one to his parched stepfather. ! smuggled these into the
food cartons, as a special treat! Pity theyre a bit on the warm side - but its better than
a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, any day!" Then he raised his opened can. Heres to
the Hollow Earth, Bob!" A toast Bob readily seconded, even though he wasnt going.
They downed their lukewarm beers with great enthusiasm.
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Well, now!" said Drew, ! reckon well leave this lot lie for a while, and take a bit of
a wander down to the chamber. What say, Bob?" Bob nodded and got to his feet, but his
cheerfulness had faded somewhat. Drew guessed, rightly, that he was recalling Errols
unpleasant encounter with the goanna-like thing that had bitten him.
! know what youre !nInKIng, mate," he said, but Errol will have to look on it as like
falling off a motorbike, Bob. The only way hell get over a shock like that is to get straight
back into it again!" He went and rummaged in a black airline-bag, that hed brought
along personally on the flight, separate from the rest of the cargo. From it he produced
one of the revolvers, and proceeded to load it. Bob stared in wonder.
How about InaI, then, Bob?" Drew grinned, flourishing the weapon. Does !na!
make you feel any better?" Then, picking up one of the torches, he led the way, torch in
one hand and revolver in the other, down towards the far end of the tunnel. Bob followed
close upon his heels, flashing his torch cautiously into every crevice along the long gallery
to make sure there were none of the weird lizards about.
The large chamber was exactly as they had left it several days earlier, and after they
had clambered down into it, they both moved cautiously forward towards its center, slowly
flashing their powerful torch-beams in every direction. As far as could be seen, the great
chamber appeared to be free of any life-forms other than themselves. However, as they
neared the entrance to the lava-chamber, Drew halted in mid-stride. !ts a bit too dan-
gerous messing about in here, Bob, without proper lights, what say we try getting some
power on so we can light this place up a bit? Reckon we might be better off getting the
generator going where it is, dont you? At least that way, we wont cop all the diesel fumes
down here! Do you know where the floodlights are, by the way, Bob? ! hope ! didnt
forget to load èm!"
But Bob reassured him they were in one of the cartons hed sent down, and that the
]errycans of diesel fuel were also up the gallery. Drew breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Things had been so hectic over the past day or two an)!nIng could have slipped his mind.
`Nust be getting absentminded in my old age! he mused.
Nonetheless, within another hour, they had the generator going, and had set up the
floodlights in the huge gloomy chamber. !t now resembled one of those show-caves that
are seen in tourism pictures of the Nammoth caves, only even brighter.
A man could read a bloody newspaper down here! Bob opined cheerfully Even
the bloody classifieds an the bloody racing-guide! Just wait till the others get here,
Drew, theyll think its the bloody Sydney Opera House!" Then they set about rigging up
the first of three floodlights to be positioned directly over the great shaft, and by the time
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that was done, they heard the distant but unmistakable chattering drone of the chopper
returning, and very soon its roaring engine and swishing rotors could be clearly heard
even that far underground from the fumarole vent.
They went up out of the chamber and stood listening attentively to the noisy hulla-
baloo echoing down the vent-pipe. !t was better when the choppers engine was finally
cut and they could hear the sliding of fuselage doors and the chatter and laughter of its
passengers. Then suddenly Errols unmistakable Detroit accent echoed down to them.
HEYl BELOW THEREl ANYBODY HOME?"
Drew grinned at Bob and responded at once cupping his hands around his mouth.
Too bloody right were home, you bone-idle sod!" he bellowed with a chuckle Get your
lazy arse down here, Errol - theres work to be done!" They heard a muffled cackle from
up the tube, then, after some sort of a brief, querulous argument, a small shower of debris
indicated that Errol was already starting to descend. Within a couple of minutes, he was
standing between them, his face bright pink with the heat up top and the effort of his
descent, and his lank red hair hanging in wet strands from beneath the edges of his caving
helmet.
Hw), ppI!" he grinned breezily, as he detached the rope from the chest-box
of his rappelling-harness, and sending it back up for his rucksack. Ny God!" He ex-
claimed, !ts hotter than the goddamn hobs of Hell up there!" Then he unstrapped his
caving helmet and shook his sweat-saturated head and long red hair free of the rivulets of
perspiration, liberally showering Drew and Bob as he did so. Hey! Nice one, guys!" he
said in mild awe at the brilliant lighting that flooded the gallery from the lava chamber.
Glad to see you guys been occupying your time usefully whilst awaiting our arrival!"
Drew, although delighted to have Errol back at his side, was ]ust about to snap
Errols head off, but Bob quietly tapped his arm with a cautioning knuckle, so he refrained.
!t was enough that Errol had shown the guts to return to the scene of his trauma, so he let
his witty banter go straight on by. Yair!" he replied sarcastically. We got pretty bored
sitting around chewing the fat, so we decided to while a bit of time away by getting the
genny going and setting up a few lights! Glad you like it, mate! Weve striven to do our
humble bloody best in your esteemed absence, oh mighty master!" then, seeing that his
irony left Errol completely unmoved, Drew went on. Did Nike pass on the message,
mate? And have you brought the scuba-gear and our backpacks - which sm half-witted
ningnong forgot to load up last trip?" he added sarcastically.
Errol smiled apologetically. Yeah! All being off-loaded now, Drew. But dont blame
me, if they got overlooked! You were in goddamn charge of.."
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But here Bob intervened. Now, now, boys! Thatll bloody do! ! never saw such a
pair of arguing sods in me bloody life! Lets get on with finishing this lighting ]ob, Drew,
before ! have to go up top and leave you with it, eh? Come on Errol, )u can bloody well
help, too! Hey, and that reminds me. Did you fetch Jimmy along, too? Hes going to
Keep Cocky" up top while youre all down here en]oyin your bloody selves, so youll at
least have sm connection with the outside world!"
Errol looked a bit mystified at Bob. Whats he brought a cockatoo for, Bob?"
Bob stared at Errol pityingly. KpIn CK) means watchinout for nosey bas-
tards! They used to watch out for the bloody Johns durin a Two-Up game! Jeeze, mate!
Hasnt Drew taught you an)!nIn about Oz over the past four years?"
Dont worry about it, Bob!" laughed Drew. !ll explain it all to him later, mate! Lets
get back to the ]ob!"
The lighting work went much faster with Errol involved, and ]ust as they finished
rigging the third and final floodlight over the shaft - the three now brilliantly illuminating
its depths with their combined light as far as could be seen - the rest of the group arrived
from the surface, lugging their own and Errols baggage and gear with them. The only
ones who were missing were Jimmy and Nike, and as they climbed down into the cham-
ber, the sound of Nikes chopper engine echoed down the tube and the gallery, and Bob
looked alarmed, fearing he was being marooned.
The professor lead the way, with the two girls following close behind him. Ye dinna
need tae fret yersel, Boab!" he shouted. Yon Nike `s ]ust doin a wee bit feedlin wi the
engine oyon contraption. But he did ask me tae tell ye noat tae dawdle ower long, as hes
raedy tae go when ye are!" Then as Bob hurried off to pick up his gear, Chas descended
from the tunnel ledge and looked around the floodlit cavern.
Weel! This is a rare treat! A mon can see wharhes planting his feet, the noo! Aye,
yeve done a grand ]ob, Andrae!" Then he ventured over toward the great shaft and
peered over its edge for a long, thought full moment. Aye, its a bonny wee leap o faith,
alright, is yon. But !f ye and Harold can dae it, Ahll no be far behind ye!"
Both Drew and Errol were pleasantly surprised by the professors sudden show of
blithe sang-froid in the face of the terrifying abyss before him. Obviously he was made of
far sterner stuff than either of them had ever imagined! Drew was so amazed, he even
forgot to correct the dear old bloke about Harold" being Errol".
Bob now reappeared at the cavern opening. OK, you fellers! !m on me way home
now - old Nikes getting a bit toey again! So !ll love you all and leave you now - and !
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hope that God will take great care of you all. Joan asked me to remind you, Drew, about
what she said to you last night - whatever it was! Anyhow, ! hope youll be able to keep
in touch all right, and young Charliell be listenin out for your messages. So !ll see you
later, folks! God Bless you all and keep you safe!"
Then with a quick wave of his hand, he turned and left, but not without Drew seeing
the hard-fought tears shining in his eyes. He almost felt like running after Bob and hug-
ging him farewell, but he forbore from doing so because he knew that Bob wasnt a
demonstrative man when it came to showing his true feelings.
They all yelled after him to have a safe trip Home, and, in the silence that followed,
they heard the choppers engine burst into clacking life, and then grow into a roar as it
took off. A roar that soon faded into a whisper as it headed away southward to Glengarry
- and Home.
The silent minutes of introspection that followed would have grown into an hour if
Drew hadnt suddenly slapped his large hands together, and asked Chas to take the girls
and start fetching the rest of the stuff from the gallery along into the chamber. Then, as
they went off, he turned to Errol.
Right, mate! While theyre away, theres something ! want to get resolved urgently
regarding the shaft. !ts something thats been bugging me for days, so bear with me, old
son!" He then led Errol over toward the edge of the shaft.
There he paused and produced a carpenters roll-up steel tape measure from his
bush-]acket pocket. !t was one of those that has feet and inches on one side and metric
divisions on the other. He asked Errol to grab hold of one end, then, holding the chromed
tape-case, he sidled very cautiously between the fallen rocks, around to the opposite side
of the shaft mouth, keeping well clear of the edge, and allowing the tape to extend itself
as he went.
Right, Errol!" he called toward his friend opposite. ! want you to IawI aI/uII) to
the edge of the shaft and hold the end of the tape against it. OK?"
Errol did as he was asked, watching out closely for any rocks that might make him
stumble as he edged forward on all fours. Okeydoke!" he called. !ts there, Drew!" he
sang out as he felt for the sharp rocky rim of the pit, and held the yellow tape firmly up
against it. So whats the diameter, then ?"
There was a momentary pause as Drew peered down at the tape measure in his
hand. !t crossed the edge of the shaft at ]ust over twenty-eight feet, ten inches. He
turned the tape over and found it was eight point seven eight-eight metres. Thats close
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enough to twenty-nine feet, Errol, or around eight point eight metres - if youre a bloody
foreigner!" Then he added, Anyhow, Errol ! reckon that should give us plenty of clear-
ance for the skydiving chutes!" - wouldnt you reckon?"
Hmmm." mused Errol. So !na!s whats been bugging you? Waal, !d say )us!
aDu!, buddy..as long as we dont veer around too much on the way down. Still, there
Is this rising air-current in our favor." He held out his other hand to feel the warm updraught
against its palm. Well probably descend fairly slowly, so that should allow us plenty of
time to make corrections or ad]ustments as we go."
Drew assimilated this intelligence for a moment. Then he edged forward flat on his
stomach and directed his gaze down the shaft wall. !t looked quite astonishingly smooth
and even, considering its turbulent and explosive creation.
Cant really see anything that would snag the `chutes - can you, mate?" he called
out across the wide, gaping mouth of the pit
Errol couldnt either, and said so. ! do believe we might have really struck the
goddamn ]ackpot, Drew! !ts as smooth as a babys backside from here!"
Drew was relieved. Goodo, mate! Oh! And you can let go of !n !ap now!"
Errol did so, and heard it zzIppp back like lightning across the yawning gulf into its
case in Drews hand. Then Drew backed up and rose to his feet.
Well, at least thats one more damn bogey-man" laid to rest!" he said, making his
way round to Errols side.. !ts been bothering me for the last couple of days - whether
we IaII) d1d have enough Im for the chutes! !t certain looks a far happier prospect
now, mate. Youve no idea how things can bloody gnaw at you!"
At this, Errol gave him a cynical look. Oh, yeah? N Ia, hey? Tell me about it,
Drew!" He said, rubbed his still-tender thigh, pointedly. Wait till youVe been gnawed on,
buddy, then mebbe we can mpaI n!s about how it feels!" Drew stared at him in
puzzlement for a moment until the coin finally dropped. Oh, Gee, Errol! ! didnt mean
that the way it bloody came out! Sorry, old son!"
Apology gracefully accepted!" grinned Errol, mischievously. Just couldnt resist
kidding you along a little, bro!"
They were still laughing as Chas came back, loaded up with assorted gear, followed
by Hazel and Narianne, similarly burdened. Hey, theire, you two!" cried Chas in mock-
anger. Whats a this standin aboot grennin an leerin while ither bodies are weirkin like
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slaves at yer bluidy beck an call? !f yeve naithing baitter tae dae, why dont ye gie us a
hand, ye great lazy pair o lummocks!"
But they I have something better to do. Their first priority was to set up a line of
communication with young Charlie back at Glengarry. Fortunately, Drew found the radio-
gear neatly packed in the second carton he opened, and he forthwith sent Errol back up
the vent-pipe with the telescoping aerial rod, which he was to fasten as high as he could
upon the tallest tree he could find near the fumarole. From the aerial, a considerable
length of cable trailed behind, down the vent-pipe, along the gallery and into the cham-
ber, where it plugged into the radio transceiver unit.
Within half an hour Errol returned, having been assisted by Jimmy - who had done
all the tree-climbing for him, as well as winching him up and down the tube - and had
been suitably rewarded for his help by the promise of a free night-out at the Winton pub!
(But itd have to wait till they got back from their mission.) No one noticed the long
bundle he carried, that Jimmy had hidden for him in the tent.
Another ten or fifteen minutes of fiddling and ad]ustment by Drew, had them in
clear communication with Charlie - not to mention his excited Num and his sisters.
Bob hadnt yet returned but Joan expected him momentarily. Drew would have
loved to have chatted with his Num for an hour, but there was still a great deal to be done
so, having established their line of communication, he reluctantly had to sign off. But not
before hed given Charlie the radio-wavelength and a call-sign, Sierra Hector Echo triple
Three - and a strict warning against making any silly nuisance calls. This was a serious
business and he was to treat it as such. Now all that was needed was too give the girls
a crash-course in using the radio.
Fortunately, when Drew started to explain its workings to the girls, Hazel revealed
that she had acquired a good working knowledge of radio during her globe-trotting days,
so she was immediately appointed Chief Operator, but with strict instructions to show
Narianne how to work it. Narianne however, being a powerful psychic, had her own
means of communication. But she nevertheless agreed to give Hazels radio-instruction
her best shot. Drew told her that he asked for nothing more.
Their next move was to prepare the assumed-empty magma reservoir at the base of
the shaft ready for their descent. This meant first sending down supplies and equipment
for them to set up and stock a base-camp some two miles (or more) beneath the lava
chamber in which they presently stood.
However, before doing this, Drew decided to connect up the air-pipe to the com-
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pressor, then slide it down the shaft in case there should turn out to be any lack of
breathable air down below. The air current that rose up the shaft seemed to indicate that
this would prove unnecessary, but one needed to err on the side of caution! He also
intended lowering a couple of the extra long ropes, so that, if all else failed they would,
have some means of possibly climbing or being hauled back up to safety.
This was despite the fact that he had already conceived a method by which they
could float up the shaft using the balloons hed got from Gabe. The idea was simplicity
itself, as he set about confirming by means of a trial. He first got three of the small calor
gas-lighting bottles, with their mantles carefully-protected, which altogether weighed around
eighty to a hundred pounds, and tied them securely together. Then, taking one of the thin
plastic car-covers, he turned it into a sort of parachute, by tying half a dozen longish
lengths of light rope to its securing eyelets.
He next retrieved the roll of orange safety-tape they had left behind after their
earlier visit, and which was still lying intact in the chamber. From this useful stuff, he
fashioned a cargo-net of sorts and placed the cylinders in it. Now, he attached the lines
of the car-cover securely to top of the netted bundle. The others stood around watching
this mysterious work with growing curiosity. Even Errol was mystified by it all. Drew had
simply not told anyone of his idea in case it turned out to be a flop. However, the professor
was soon onto him.
Ah can see noo what Andraes aboot!" he beamed, knowingly at Errol." Hes going
tae paIanu! yon cylinders doon the shaft! Am Ah not right, Andrae, eh?" he said trium-
phantly.
Well, no, Chas," replied Drew n! exactly. But if youll ]ust bear with me a while
longer, youll see pIIsI) what !m trying to do!" then he glanced at Errol. would you
bring me one of those weather-balloons, mate, an a cylinder of helium, plus the brass
pressure-valve and spanner thats with them?"
Sure thing, bro." Said Errol darting away to find the requested items. He was back
with them after a couple of minutes of searching through the stacked gear.
Whats the plan, Drew?" he asked, puzzled. !d kinda figured you were going to
send those other gas bottles wn the shaft - not up in the sK)!"
They aI going down the shaft. Chas is right about that." said Drew. But ! want to
test out an idea before ! do that. We have the space up here to try it out, but there
mightnt be the same room down below, mate! !f you mus! know, Errol, ! want to find out
]ust how much lifting-power these balloons actually nav. They could be very useful to us
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when it comes to g!!Ing DaK up the shaft - especially if we find its a blind alley" down
there! Get the idea?"
Errol understood then - and so did the professor. Aye, Ahm beginnin tae see what
yer aboot, now, Andrae," he cried, but dye think one of yon met" balloons has the
capacity tae lift a mon such as yerself? What wIgn! are ye? Aroond a hoondred an
seventy poonds? Ahd say that, from what wee bit physeecs Ah recall, yed need a! Ias!
a guid couple o thoosand cubic feet or so tae lift ye - and thats at sa-IaIvI ! So Goad
alone knows what itll tak doon at the bottom o the shaft!"
Drew pondered Chass statement with growing gloom. !f what Chas said was cor-
rect, it meant that the twelve-foot diameter balloons hed obtained through Gabe were no
use. He had badly miscalculated the quantities hed need, having fondly deluded himself
that a twelve-foot balloon would easily lift any of them, and had therefore set about his
making his ]ury-rigged" car-cover balloon-holder, in full expectation that the balloon could
have been filled from one cylinder and would have easily lift the netful of steel gas-bottles.
And, as if that werent enough, he hadnt brought anything IIK sufficient gas along
in the fairly small cylinders hed purchased, for all three of them to fill one balloon apiece!
He had only brought three smallish cylinders that each held about 1500 cubic feet. He
crestfallen said as much to his colleagues, and they all fell to pondering the problem.
The professor did a couple of quick calculations in his head and said that two thou-
sand five hundred cubic feet should ]ust comfortably lift either Drew or HaII - who
were both largish young men - or of course, himself, being smaller, with ease.
Finally, Errol suggested that they could perhaps use a paII of the balloons In !anm,
one fastened above the other, to lift one man up the shaft. Then he could tie a large rock
- somewhat heavier than himself, onto the harness so that it would sink back down the
shaft again !t could then be used by the next man, who would simply repeat the exer-
cise, and so on. A kind of gas Iva!I!" he said with a hopeful grin. Then, s! v, he
added: Always trusting the damn thing didnt snag on anything!"
Here Chas spoke up again. This time rather irascibly. What the Heill are ye baith
worryin aboot mIn up again for, ]ust noo, anyhoo? We havenae even gan n yet,
mon! Therell be plenty of time tae solve yon problem when we get back from oor subter-
ranean ramblings - I/ w vI a, ocourse!"
This last comment had the desired effect of lifting Drew out of the brooding brown
study hed fallen into. Youre absolutely DI) IIgn!, as usual, Chas! Lets get on with
humping our gear down the shaft!"
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They then finished dropping the long hose-tube and the ropes down the shaft,
taking care to ]oin the separate segments very securely together as they came to the end
of a length. !t would be a pity if the pipes own lower weight were to pull it apart at the
]oints, as theyd have no way of retrieving it and ]ointing it back together again. The long
lengths of rope were simply knotted together, and the top parts of each were securely tied
and bound in place to a couple of sturdy rocks so that the whole lot didnt inadvertently
vanish over the brink! Lastly, a long length of radio cable was lowered, in case their hand-
set signals didnt carry up from the depths
The end of the hose was finally connected to the compressor, located ]ust outside
the chamber entrance, then it was fuelled up and tested. The motor started after a couple
of attempts, and it was rewarding to see the flaccid hose fill out under the air-pressure
and to know it was pumping fresh air down and out of its farther end (Though whether
this was now coiled down in the magma reservoir, or not, still remained to be discovered!)
Thankfully, Drew was glad to notice that the fumes from both engines were being sucked
out of the gallery, so the girls wouldnt be breathing polluted air.
Then they set about making up some more of the car-cover parachutes. This task
completed, without any further ado, they then dropped on of the lesser important para-
chuted bundles down the shaft. Thankfully, the rising air-current immediately filled the
baglike silver plastic car-cover, and it drifted down slowly and gracefully, with scarcely a
hint of a swing. They all stood round the pit watching it descending until it vanished into
the dark hazy depths below, almost seven or eight minutes later! Chas had timed it on his
wristwatch. The improvised chute worked wonderfully well and Drew was like a dog with
two tails. Bloody ripper!" he laughed. Ny Word, Errol! W could have used these
bloody things uIsIvs -instead of the chutes!"
They then continued to dispatch further bundles and packages of gear and supplies
in the same manner until eventually, all that was left were their personal backpacks. Drew
called a halt at that point for their final Smoko" break, before they dropped their personal
gear and took the final plunge themselves.
The girls in the meantime had been rigging up a tent-like shelter from the blue
tarps, amid the taller stones, and had made all the sides secure from intrusion by weight-
ing them with large stones. They had almost completed it and had already put all their
own gear inside, including two folding camp beds, blankets and even a small fold-up
calor-gas stove and a stock of water and food that they had brought with them, plus the
radio. !t was like a home away from home! A large billycan of water was already boiling
on the stove and the teabags waiting in six enamel mugs! The men were astonished at all
this work that had gone on unnoticed behind their backs!
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While the other two chatted with Hazel and Narianne over a well-earned and pos-
sible final mug of hot tea and sandwiches, Drew took the opportunity of stowing two of the
three revolvers and the ammunition in his own backpack. The other revolver he kept
upon his person in his bush ]acket pocket. Better safe than sorry! You never knew what
sort of trouble you might drop into! Then he strolled over and sat beside Narianne, who
was looking rather strained and nervous. Unlike Hazel, who was ]oking and laughing with
Errol and the professor, as though they were on some sort of ]olly picnic outing, instead of
a perilous adventure into the unknown!
As they sat quietly together, Drew suddenly felt a slim, cool hand steal into his own,
and as he turned his head, she looked up into his eyes, adoringly. But beside the deep
love he could at last see there, which thrilled him to the core of his being, Drew also saw
the worried look of foreboding she had carried on her mind since the awful night vision
she had experienced.
No need to trouble yourself, Narianne!" said he, trying to brighten her up a little.
Nothing can harm us down there! !f you dont believe me, ]ust ask Joan! Shes probably
asking God to watch over us all right now, if ! know her!" Then he quietly told her
something of what had passed between him and his Num. So there you go, love! !
reckon !ll be watched over pretty closely from now on!"
Narianne at last gave him a beautiful, loving smile. !ll be doing ]ust the same as
Joan. ! have a special arrangement with the GIa! 5pIII!, too! Hes the same Person who
protects aII of us - we ]ust call Him by different nams, thats all!"
Then they sat for ]ust a moment or two longer, with hands tightly gripped, before
Chas rose to his feet, and made a brisk announcement: Weel," He said loudly, if yere
going to ]ust sit there canoodlinall day, Ahll ]ust have tae gae doon yonder haule on mah
ain! Ah canna hang aroond chit-chattin much longer!"
That broke the spell, and the others got to their feet reluctant to leave each other.
Suddenly, Errol surprised them all when he cried, On !n nK wI!n I!1", flung his arms
around Hazel, and planted a passionate, long drawn-out kiss right on her lips.
Drew needed no further hint. He clutched Narianne to himself and gave her a
wonderfully tender kiss that she would remember forever. Dont worry, sweetheart!" he
whispered to her as they parted. ! wIII be back! Youd better believe it, honey! Theres
far too much unfinished business we need to attend to!"
Behind there backs, and whilst the professor was busying himself with tying their
bulky rucksacks onto another of the car-cover parachutes, Errol let go of Hazel and reached
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down the long bundle hed placed on top of one of the rocks. Hazel was astounded when
he opened the wrappings to reveal its contents - a brand-new 12-bore double-barreled
shotgun, together with some packs of cartridges. He thrust the bundle into her hands and
told her to put it away inside their shelter. !tll sure make me feel a lot happier, honey, if
! know that you and Narianne are able to protect yourselves from - well - anything that
might show up!" he told her. Just be goddamn careful you dont shoot Narianne, or
Drewll probably kill me with his bare hands! You know how to use one of these, dont
you?"
Oh, git off the grass, !rrol! Oi know my way around guns all roight!" she replied.
Ny old men used to be a shooting fenetuc beck in the Old Dart, before they came out to
!nZid. En he wus a top marksmen in the Bretesh Army whin he wes a young chep, so
sunce thaiy niver hed any sons, he taught me to shoot, unstid! So you dont need to worry
iny about us, love! Oi thunk Narianne cn use a roifle too, so wull be roight es roin! Jest
you look efter yousilves down there! OK?"
Errol felt greatly reassured on hearing this as well as tickled pink by her quaint Kiwi
accent. !t was very akin to the Aussie dialect yet oddly different. But in his heart of hearts
it was music to his ears. He loved Hazel dearly, and would gladly die for her if necessary.
Now he had to leave her here in this desolate hole of a place. But, thank the Lord, she
had a great companion to keep her company! Holy Smoke! Drew had made a fantasti-
cally inspired choice when he invited !ns two great girls over! He glanced over toward
Drew and Narianne who were wrapped in a final embrace, and he caught Drews eye over
Nariannes shoulder. He threw him a quick wink, and Drew grinned and gave him the
Thumbs Up" signal behind her back.
!t was then that the professor again uttered his clarion call to arms. Weel! Are ye
young lovebirds raedy or not? Ahll gie ye thairty saiconds tae get auver here an hailp me
with these rucksacks, or Ahll ]ump doon on mah own!"
He stood there by the side of the pit making a big show of staring at his wristwatch,
until his two young companions finally tore themselves away from their new-found
lovers, and reluctantly strode over to his side. Then it was but the work of a few minutes
to dispatch the heavy backpacks down the shaft all tied beneath a single car-cover para-
chute". They still drifted down quite gently, and again Drew wondered if !n) might as
well have tried them instead of the more complicated skydiving chutes. However, the die
was well and truly cast, and there was no turning back now. They donned their chute
harnesses and checked each other out. All was fine. The Noment of Truth was at hand!
The two girls held each other nervously as the trio readied themselves. The men shook
hands firmly, hiding their fear behind bold grins.
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Break a bloody leg!" laughed Errol. Yeah, and up yours, too!" grinned Drew. Chas
said nothing, he was fervently racing through the LIs PIa)I under his breath.
Then Drew said Right, m first, then after a count of ten )u, Chas! Then likewise,
)uIsI/, Errol! God speed us all!" He turned and bowed to Narianne and Hazel like a
bold cavalier. Then in one coordinated move he pivoted around and flinging his pilot-
chute up before him, leapt out and upwards, then disappeared down the shaft. Narianne
turned and buried her face into Hazels shoulder, as Errol leaned over the edge watching
Drews chute blossom forth He was counting out loud. ..Seven eight, n1ne, TEN!"
Then the fearless old professor, in his turn, leapt unhesitating outward after Drew, with a
wild cry of SCOTS WA' HAE.. !" His voice was still trailing away down the shaft as Errol
was finishing his own countdown ..five, six, seven, eight, n1ne..GERONIMOl" he
yelled bravely, as he launched himself after his companions.
There followed a long silence, and Hazel gripped Narianne in a vice-like tremulous
hold and burst into tears herself. Then, suddenly, as one, they both hurried forward to
peer terrified, down the gaping throat of the great pit. Thankfully, they were rewarded by
the wonderful, truly glorious sight of three gaily-coloured rectangular canopies slowly
drifting downward, one above the other, swaying lightly from side to side as they sank
steadily further below them.
The two young women stood and watched together for a long time until the last
vestige of a tint of color finally vanished into the gloomy obscurity of the depths of the
chasm. At length, sighing with relief, they slowly turned and walked away from the edge
of the pit, each of them wrapped in deep contemplation of the astonishing display of cool-
headed bravery they had ]ust been privileged to witness.
Wull! Thaive gone down now, kuddo!" said Hazel, patting Narianne gently on the
shoulder. we cn only hope thaiy lend saifly, and thet theres no lava or ges down there!
But Oim sure thaiyll be foine, dont you rickon, love?"
Narianne nodded quickly and with assurance. Sure! Theyll be ]ust fine! !m ]ust
going to hit the sack now, Hazel, and see if ! can get down there in the astral and check
the guys out - you dont mind, do you?" Then, seeing a slight look of doubt in her friends
eyes as they entered their yurt-like tarpaulin tent, she said !m n! kidding you, Hazel!
Astral-travel Is a vI) IaI thing, and you can go places in the spIII! that youd never reach
in the body! !ll soon find them and see how they got on! Now ! gotta relax! !ll be back
soon, honey - Honest !ndian!" She smiled wanly at her little ]oke as she lay down on her
camp-bed and closed her eyes.
Hazel sat beside her hand resting upon Nariannes lightly-clasped ones. Plisent
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dreams, kuddo!" she whispered. "Oill ]ust sut here end watch over you. Come beck weth
some good news, gurl, end God bliss you!" She gave her sleeping friend a gentle, sisterly
kiss on the brow, then she leant back to reflect upon all the amazing events of the past few
days.
She was now essentially alone in this large underground chamber - or at least she
np so. She didnt expect any unwelcome visitors with so much light around. But she
felt greatly reassured when her wandering eyes caught the glint of blue steel as the calor-
lanterns light reflected off the barrels of Errols shotgun propped in the corner of the tent.
`Come back to me safely, my love! she murmured silently in her heart.
As they drifted down the great pit as gently as thistledown, Drew peered down into
the looming darkness beneath his dangling feet. The shaft ]ust seemed to go on and on,
ever deeper into the bowels of the earth. He had glanced at his wristwatch ]ust prior to
]umping, simply to mentally record the actual time of their departure in his mind for the
sake of keeping a rough log of their adventures later, as he found the time. Curiously, it
had been ]ust on six-thirty p.m., or rather 18.30 hours - must start thinking in an orderly,
military way, he mentally told himself - and now, as he strained his eyes in the growing
gloom, his barely discerned watch told him it was almost 18.50 hours! G G1 Theyd
been descending slowly for !wn!) mInu!s!
By twisting his head awkwardly backward, he attempted to see if Chas and Errol
were visible above him, but his canopy blocked his view of them. However, he could see
the walls of the shaft above were still quite brightly lit by the distant floodlights, even
though they were growing rapidly darker at his present level. Then it occurred to him
that even though they couldnt see each other because of their canopies, that was no
reason for them to be silent. He leant his head back and shouted up to them. Hws I!
gIng, )u DIKs7 vI)!nIng OK7 His voice boomed loudly as if through a micro-
phone, and he realized that the shaft was acting like a megaphone. Obviously, they
wouldnt have any difficulty hearing each other!
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This was borne out when Chass Scots accented voice boomed back at him of the
shaft walls. Ach! Ahm doing real fine, Andrae, thank ye! Non! This is a grand way tae
traivel, dye not think sae! Floatin doon as light as a faither! !t was sae quiet and
peaceful, Ah was ]ust begeenin tae fancy Ah must hae deed an goane tae Heaven.."
Then Errols voice loudly interrupted Chas from above. G wnIzz, Drew! TnIs is
the nI) way to fly, buddy!" He paused for a moment then called out again Hey, buddy!
How far do you figure we came? Seems like we been drifting down forever! Wonder how
much further we gotta go yet? Any sign of anything?"
They were both astounded when Drew hailed them back and told them theyd been
descending for around twenty minutes or so.
Y n! sa)7" cried the professor incredulously. Man1 Ye canna be serious!
At this rate we must hae traveled !n mIIs or more, surely?" But Drew pointed out
that the ropes and the air-hose were still dangling down against the wall beside them.
!m sure we didnt have more than a couple of miles of hose, at the very most! No, !
reckon its this rising draught of air thats slowing us right down! !m beginning to wonder
if we might have been OK with the balloon idea after all! !d forgotten to take this uplift of
air into account!"
Yep, you could be right about that, Drew!" answered Errol. Hey! And speaking of
this air-current. Have either of you noticed any increase in its !mpIa!uI at all? Still
feels the sam to me, bro!"
Drew hadnt noticed, but he now stretched out a hand palm downwards and felt its
lukewarm breath blowing lightly up against his skin. !t was the same as when he first
checked it up in the chamber. Your dead right, Errol!" he called, ! cant detect an)
difference at all! So much for the old idea of !mpIa!uI IIsIng wI!n p!n, eh! What
d)u reckon about that, Chas?"
Weel Ah call tae mind that Ahve alraidy given mah opeenion aboot that when ye
fairst asked me, Andrae, and Ah see no reason tae change it noo. This only n/aIIms
what Ah said then. This is a naturally-formed hole, sae the praissure-heating o the roack-
layers doesnae apply. !n ony case, the air-current will hae carried awa any heat theere
ever was, lang since! !ts seems tae me seemply a maitter 5aIIums!aIns aI!IIn
Cass, nae more an nae less." And with this ambiguous answer Drew and Errol had to
be content - at least for the time being.
During the course of this fog-horned conversation, Drew had been taking note of
the smooth rock of the shaft wall. !t didnt seem to have changed in its composition at all,
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considering the great depth they must have fallen. There were no signs of changing
strata or colouration, at least as far as he could detect by the headlamps on his helmet. He
drew this to the professors attention. Did you ever see a deep rock stratum this thick in
your life, sir?" he asked, unconsciously paying respect to his old tutors knowledge and
experience in geological matters.
The professor, however displayed no surprise at this revelation. Ahd probably be
able tae answer ye baitter if Ah could see the IK Ia)Is themsailves, Andrae," he said, in
his best lecturing voice. But Ahm afraid that what yere looking at is seemply the smoothed
an steam-blaisted surface o the magma that once blew up this conduit! !ts left a smooth
coatin right from bottom tae top. Ah can only surmise that its yon supIna!-s!am
DIaIs! that poleeshed it sae fine as tae siut oor pairpose! And, before ye aisk me - Ahll tell
ye that it was probably an aquI/I /II unIgIn wa!I !na! Iup!uI uIIng !n
vIans Iup!In, and its resultant water-run-oot that caused the beg final blaist!" He
paused then asked, Do ye onderstand hoo it could hae haippened, boys? There seemply
uIna be ony !nI explanation - unless the sa mebbe foond its way in frae the
Carpentaria Gulf!"
Drew mulled this response over in his mind. Geologically, it all fitted. He knew all
about the huge subterranean aquifers vast layers of porous rock that underlay more than
a third of the entire Australian continent. !f it werent for these, there would be n cattle-
stations at all in the semi-arid desert lands of the Australian outback! !n the absence of
adequate rainfall, most had to depend entirely upon the brackish, semi-saline bore-water.
!t was either /I up boreholes by underground-pressure, or it was pump up them
from the porous sub-artesian rock layers deeper underground by the myriad galvanized
steel windmill-pumps that were almost a natural feature of the outback cattle and sheep
properties! As it was drawn up, the water ran into long drinking-troughs or shallow circu-
lar corrugated-iron tanks, where the livestock could easily reach it.
The largest, the Great Artesian Basin ran inland almost to Alice Springs, south al-
most to the head of the Spencer Gulf across almost to the sea around SE Queensland and
northern New South Wales and right up through outback Queensland to Cape York and
the gulf of Carpentaria, and its northeastern edge skirted around the Undara volcanic
Province. This could well have been be the source of the blast!
!t was at this point that Drew glanced down between his feet and discovered that
the end of their marathon-drop was approaching. !n the near-darkness, he saw the
reflection of his helmet lamps strike something silvery, some way beneath him. !t could
only mean one thing. The silvery ob]ect could only be one of the car-covers theyd used
as parachutes" for their baggage and other items earlier that afternoon. But as his pupils
ad]usted to the dark, he saw vague shapes moving below him, too!
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What should he do? !f he shouted his discovery to the others, whatever was down
there would be alerted at once by the alarm in his voice. They - whatever !n) were -
must have been aware of their voices up the shaft for some time, but apparently hadnt
been frightened off by them. Perhaps if he spoke in normal tones they would continue to
ignore him? He drew his revolver out of his bush-]acket pocket, cocked it at the ready,
then in as matter-of-fact" a voice he could muster under the circumstances, he spoke.
By the way, fellers. ! dont want to alarm you but were nearly there, and theres
some sort of reception-committee waiting for us. For Petes Sake dont start shouting or
anything - !ve got a bloody revolver in my hand! Just acknowledge that youve heard
me, but pIas spaK quI!I)! We dont want them to Knw were onto them until we
land!"
Aye, Ah heard ye anAh ken fine, too, mah bonnie laddie!" came back the professors
pleasantly modulated voice, as if welcoming the Deans wife at a tea-party.
Roger that, Houston." Called Errol equally softly from above. "Are they like my
gnashing friend of the other day? Pity we didnt bring the balloons! Over"
Cut the bloody cackle now, fellers!" replied Drew in dulcet tones. !m nearly bloody
down!"
Then his feet touched down gently right in the midst of a pile of slippery plastic, and
his helmet lamps revealed an assortment of reptilian shapes slithering out from beneath
the car-covers, and retiring, hissing into the surrounding gloom. Quickly, Drew pocketed
his pistol, and hauled down his canopy, bundling it between his feet. He had to move fast
to make way for Chas who was almost on top of him now. As Chas landed and pulled his
parachute down, Drew again produced the revolver and peered quickly about, his helmet-
lamps flashing wildly across rocks and lava stalactites that lay and hung everywhere.
Here and there pairs of slanted eyes glinted yellowly in their twin beams. And he
fought back the urge to fire at them. Another soft, slippery thump behind him told of
Errols arrival, almost right on top of Chas, who had lingered a little too long in clearing his
canopy. But within seconds they had rolled up their canopies and shrugged off their
harnesses. Now all of them were able to straighten up and look around - and see the
malevolent eyes that watched them from all angles.
Ye Gods!" gasped Errol. The goddamn things are everywhere! What the hell can
we do, Drew? Theyll rush us once they realize were harmless!"
Drew stumbled against something, and fearing it was one of the dragon-like lizards,
he stepped back smartly, but it was only one of their backpacks. He looked at it again in
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wonderment. !t was nIs wn! Hastily he crouched and opened the top flap then felt
around for the other revolvers, he found them, and he found something else hed com-
pletely forgotten. Flares! Swiftly he pulled one out and with a quickly hissed warning of
FIaI1 5nu! )uI )s1 he tore of the top of the canister.
At once the cavern was filled with a blinding pink light and there was a sudden
commotion among the gathered scaly horrors that had been creeping toward them. To
add to the commotion, Drew blazed away a couple of rounds into their midst. !mmedi-
ately panic set in and the temporarily-blinded creatures scurried away in all directions.
This gave Drew time to hand out the two revolvers to Chas and Errol together with a
pocketful of ammunition apiece. He also extracted half a dozen more of the flares, giving
two to each of his companions. Now they were ready to take the fight to the enemy,
should they return in the immediate future!
However, the reptilians seemed to have been routed, for the time being at least, so
Drew searched for the orange webbing cradle hed first used to send down the calor-gas
bottles. Of course, being the first items dropped, they had to be at the bottom of the
pile. However, as they lifted off all the other supplies and stacked them off to one side in
a side-cavern that looked as if it could be made defensible, they finally found the webbing
net of gas-bottles.
A quick check by the slowly-ebbing light of their helmet lamps revealed that they
were apparently all intact, so Drew wasted no time in selecting a couple of them and
removing the protective caps that covered their gas-mantles. Then he groped in one of
the pouches of his backpack and produced a cigarette-lighter. He then turned on the gas
in both bottles and ignited their lighting-mantles. !mmediately, the long magma reser-
voir-chamber was filled with bright light, which revealed a curious sight to their aston-
ished gaze.
The chamber, whilst in many respects resembling the one they had left two miles
above, also displayed some of the characteristics of the limestone caves they had visited in
their pot-holing days in Britain! There were magma stalagmites, stalactites, and even
tubular helictites which resembled grey-blue tree-roots dangling from the arched roof, as
well as many other features that were quite foreign to them.
The professor was all for examining these things in great detail there and then, but
Drew suggested that they should concentrate on securing their position first, in case the
strange reptilian creatures returned to attack them in force. He had noticed that even in
their panic during the route, they had seemed to possess a high level of intelligence not
normally found in lizards, and that they were also able to communicate among themselves
at an almost speech-like level. Thus they all fell to work in improving their side-cave into
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a mini-fortress. There were plenty of chunks of rock that had obviously fallen down the
shaft when the volcanos plug had collapsed up above, so they were able to use some of
these to wall off the cave entrance, leaving only enough room for one man (I Ia!uI}
to enter at a time. They had, of course, carried all their gear and supplies into the cave
first, including the silver car-cover parachutes.
This done, Drew next turned his attention to the ropes and the air-hose. There
were still substantial lengths of both lying haphazardly coiled around on the floor beneath
the shaft, so he and the others dragged them over to their redoubt and, after cutting off
the residue which they coiled inside their fortress", they pulled in the remaining few yards
over the top of their slab wall, so that they now came down the shaft and pulled around
sharply against the ceiling of the chamber instead of lying on the stone floor. At least this
would hopefully prevent the reptilians from using them to climb up the shaft and attack
the girls! The radio power-cable was also looped in over the hose. Drew asked Errol to
see if he could sort out a connection to their own secondary radio-transceiver.
But first, with Errol covering him with his revolver, Drew hefted one of the heavy
calor-lanterns up to the farther end of the main reservoir chamber, which appeared to run
back for some unknown distance away from the bottom of the shaft. Now they had
sufficient light along the chamber to see any approaching intruders for quite some consid-
erable distance! The professor, meantime, spent his time in keenly studying the geology
of the chamber, and peering into all its nooks and crannies quite casually and without any
apparent thought of the dangers they might hide.
Drew noticed this and warned Chas to be a lot more cautious, in case any of the
creatures was lurking behind some rock or column - for columns there were aplenty.
They appeared to have been formed where separate tubes and tunnels had connected
and con]oined with each other as they entered the chamber from lower levels. !n fact,
these magma tubes formed a sort of maze or labyrinth, which became more complex the
further one peered into it. !t wouldnt be hard to get inextricably lost within their black
depths, and Heaven alone knew to what further and even greater labyrinthine mazes they
might lead! Or what further horrors they might conceal in their stygian crisscrossing
tunnels and corridors!
Drew looked down at his watch and saw that it was now close to four in the morning.
!t was amazing to think that nine or ten hours had already passed since they had ]umped
down into the pit. Small wonder he was feeling faint for lack of nourishment! The others
must be in a similar plight. !t seemed like as good a time as any to knock off for a break,
and also to take a well-earned rest, too! They must have been on the go for over twenty
hours or more, with barely a moments relaxation!
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He headed back to their newly-fashioned redoubt" and called the professor inside
too. They could certainly manage without launching a search for Chas at this time - or any
other, come to that! He would have to give him a real Talking-To" about rambling around
like Browns Cows in such a dangerous and unforgiving place!
As they both entered their cave-fortress, Errol was ]ust putting the final touches to
connecting up the radio-transceiver. There!" he announced triumphantly. ! think that
should do the ]ob, Drew! Whos going to be first to give it a whirl, buddy?" Drew grinned
at Errol gratefully as he offered him the handset. Good on you, mate!" he said, but
seeing that )uv set it up, the honor goes to )u! !ll get some water boiling for a cuppa,
while you have a yarn with Hazel!" He looked in one of the supply cartons and found a
small gas-ring attachment and screwed it onto the top of one of the extra gas-bottles, and
then produced a billy-can from the same box. Another of the cartons contained a dozen
three-litre plastic bottles of drinking water. As Drew filled the billy-can from one of these,
he reminded himself that they must carefully check around for any signs of water lying in
the caverns and tunnels, as their present supply wouldnt take them very far!
As he lighted the calor-gas ring and placed the billycan on top of it to boil, he heard
Errol delightedly greeting Hazel over the radio. HIl This is ME, honey!" Errol called out
to her, as she finally answered his signal. Oh! Did ! wake you from your beauty-sleep?
5II), hon! Just though wed better let you know that we got down OK, and that were all
set up now in our own little hidey-hole, and Drews ]ust making us a hot drink.and . Eh?
!s it really? Yeah, right! !ll tell him! Hang on a tick."
Here he turned to Drew: Would you believe its goddamn storming up top, Drew?
Jimmy came down the fumarole a while back and told èm - ]ust in case they get any
flooding. Hes gonna stay with a while. How about !na!, eh!" He left Drew to chew over
this new piece of information, and returned to his pleasant chat with Hazel.
Drew was both glad and sorry to here about the rainstorm up on the surface. Glad,
because it would - or should - solve their immediate water concerns, since some of the
rainwater must inevitably find its way down into the strata both above and below them,
and leave plenty of useful pools along the way. Sorry, because it might cause the girls
some degree of inconvenience if it flooded the upper chamber and galleries. However, he
had no fears for their safety in such an event, as any excess water seeping into the upper
chamber would simply overflow down the shaft, and run off down through the long reser-
voir cavern into the depths below. Or so he fondly hoped, anyhow. Either way, it would
inevitably leave them some reserve IInKIng-pIs, which was the main thing!
As he thought on these things, the billy began to seethe noisily, so he dug out their
aluminum dixies from the supply-case, along with a ]ar of coffee granules and a pack of
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UHT milk. then he recalled the military C-Ration" packs in his backpack, and, deciding
that they might as well begin as they intended to go on, he broke out three of these too.
As Drew brewed the coffee, Errol started sniffing the air like a bloodhound. Ah!
Java!" he cried delightedly. No, no! N! the island, hon.! didnt say we were going
anywhere. No! JAVA! The goddamn coffee! Drew ]ust brewed us some . Eh? Oh!
Right, !ll tell him! Catch you later, honey, we gotta eat now! Yeah! Drewll call her right
back when weve eaten. OK? See yah!" Then after mumbled some quiet, syrupy parting
words to Hazel, he said Roger, Over and Out!" This last bit left Drew staring at him in
incredulous anger.
But Errol didnt notice his darkening frown. Narianne says shell let you have your
breakfast in peace, but could you give her a call afterwards?" he told Drew. Oh! Right!"
said Drew a trifle bitterly. Thanks a heap, mate! For a minute there ! thought you were
]ust leaving me out in the bloody cold after your cozy little yarn! ! was ]ust about to
strangle you with the bloody radio cable!"
Errol stared across at him rather quizzically. But ! //I you the first go, buddy!
You !I me to call first! CnasII bear me out - wont you, eh, Chas?"
But the professor wasnt having any part of it. Oh, no ye dont, mah wee laddie!
Ahve told ye before, Harold, Ah dinna want to get embroiled in yer pettyfoggin argu-
ments - espaicially when they concairn yer lady-friends! Ahll thank ye tae leave me oot
of yer triflin squabbles! Goad save us! Yer like pair osquallin bairns, the pair of ye!"
Both Errol and Drew nodded their heads sheepishly, before the professors mini-
tirade. Your quite right, sir!" said Drew, This is definitely not a time or place for bicker-
ing about trivialities, and ! thank you, sir, for reminding us of our situation and our youthful
immaturity!"
The professor stared rather pensively at the ground for a moment, stroking his
moustache, and began to say something in reply, but Drew hadnt finished yet.
Tipping a large knowing wink at Errol, he went on: But ! must humbly request you,
sir, to try and remember that Errols name is not HAROLD"! As !ve already informed
you on three distinct occasions, its ERROL" - E-R-R-O-L ! and well both thank you to
remember that in future, sir!"
For a long moment, Chas stared in amazement at Drew, then he began to go bright
red in the face as if an apoplectic fit were imminent and a curious rumbling sound ema-
nated from his throat, then he suddenly burst forth into a roar of laughter. Nan!" he
cried, with tears of merriment rolling down his cheeks. Ahll say this for ye, yere a proper
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caution, and yeve a fine way wi words, too! Pairhaps yer studies might have been baitter
directed toward the English language, as Ahm sure yed hae made a fine bluidy lawyer,
Andrae! Pairhaps a finer lawyer than a geeologist, mebbe?" As usual, Drew noticed, the
sting was hidden there in the tail of the professors backhanded compliment. `Cynical old
sod! he thought, with a smile of Aussie good humour hovering about the corners of his
lips. `Nothing like getting a decent serve straight back in the old dial!
Their C-Rations" breakfast turned out to be quite a pleasant repast. Not at all what
Drew had been led to believe by ex-soldiers derogatory remarks. And even Errol com-
mented that he could happily eat them all over again. Dont worry, mate!" replied Drew,
! rather suspect that youll bloody well HAVE to!"
However, when Drew later picked up one of the actual can-packs he had been sold
as C Rations" and read the package label, he discovered that they were actually de-
scribed on the wrapper as Food PacReI, 5urV1VaI, ArcI1c and the contents were listed
as containing FIuI! CaK, CnIa! Fug, CIn/IaKs, 1ns!an! C// an Ta, 5up an
GIav) (nIKn-/IavI} an Cns-P!a! - not to mention a can-opening key taped to
the bottom of each can! The calorific value of each packet being 2000! No wonder the
curious but tasty meal had been so filling! From then on, he decided, they would have to
make do with one each per day - pIus whatever else they could scrounge or catch along
the way.
Errol interrupted his thoughts. Hey, Drew. Just thought !d better remind you that
you were to give Narianne a call directly you finished chow? Oh, yeah! And it also strikes
me that were mebbe wasting fuel running the compressor up there - the air still seems
fresh enough down here without it. Waddaya think?"
Drew agreed. The air was still surprisingly fresh and they still hadnt located the
source of the current. Naybe theyd have look further along the great cavern later on.
Anyhow in the meantime, hed better call Narianne, and hed ask her to turn off the
compressor while he was doing so. He was ]ust about to pick up the handset and flick the
On" switch, when Chas appeared in the narrow entrance of their redoubt. His features
were quite pale - almost ashen - and he appeared to have undergone some sort of shock.
He pointed back toward the bottom of the shaft with a trembling hand and his voice
quavered a little when he spoke.
Andrae, Errol! Yed baitter come quick an see for yer sailves! !ts - its one o them
beasties we encoontered airlier. Ah ]oost foond one o them traipped under the stuff we
sent doon. Och! Dinna fret yersel, Errol, its DA1D!" he added quickly we he saw the
colour drain suddenly out of Errols face. But theres somethin aboot the IK o the
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creature Ah dinna like ower much!"
Drew immediately put down the radiophone and followed Chas back to their landing
site, with Errol following a step or two behind. Chas halted at the shaft floor.
!ts ower there, traipped under yonder ceelinders. They must hae braeken its
baick!" His pointing finger still trembled with the contagious ague of dread, and Errol kept
his distance as Drew clambered over the fallen rocks toward the dead beast.
When he finally stared down at the creatures remains, he saw why the professor
had been so frightened. !t was obviously one of the reptilian animals hed seen as he
landed, but it wasnt a lizard or a goanna. What he saw was a creature of distinctly
nmInI appearance. !ts head, body and limbs were very similar to their own, and its
features were arranged similarly to those of the human or apelike physiognomy except its
eyes were quite large and slanted like those of a cat, and although glazed in death, they
were open and he could see that the pupils were enormously large compared to those of
humans. However, its pallid grey skin, which resembled that of a rather grimy albino, was
actually composed of very fine reptilian - - or rather fishlike - scales. But they were much
finer than those associated with snakes and lizards. !ts arms and legs, whilst long and thin
in relation to its general physique, terminated in three-didgit fingers and toes, all of which
were armed with sharp talons - like those of a large bird of prey - or a miniature velociraptor.
However, it was the oversized head of the creature that inspired a sense of horror
even in Drews heart. The braincase was something akin to those few illustrations and
allegedly !Iu photographs hed seen in magazines and on the Web, of the Gray aliens that
had allegedly been retrieved from the crash site near the mysterious US Government
installation called Area 51 at Groom Lake in Nevada.
Drew, like millions of Americans, Australians and people of other Western nations
had simply dismissed them as either deliberate figments of Government disinformation to
draw attention away from some hidden agenda of its own, or some kind of elaborate
hoax, by a world-power group, intended to heighten humanitys xenophobic attitude to-
ward possible alien visitors. But now, here he was, confronted by something that was
quite tangibly IaI. However, far from the expressionless and noseless, tiny-mouthed
face the Greys were supposed to have, this creature had the face of a demon incarnate!
!t had beetling, bony browridges covering its large black-pupil-ed eyes, and a nose
that was more reminiscent of a baboons muzzle, ending in flared mucus-filled nostrils,
beneath which gaped a snarling, prognathous set of ]aws. These were filled with sharply-
pointed, carnivorous teeth, and, worst of all, a long, pointed purple-looking tongue which
lolled out of one side in its final grimace of death. The sum total effect of all these features
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was a visage of intensely hideous ferocity such as one generally associates with the gar-
goyles which decorate rainwater spouts on mediaeval cathedrals and churches.
Drews first impression of the creature was one of evil incarnate, and that if there
had ever been models for those ancient sculptors to carve their demons from, it must have
been this - or others very IIK it. A closer inspection revealed that it also had pointed
ears, and two small bony, hornlike protuberances on either side of the top of its nobbly
skull. `This is no alien, thought Drew, ìts a bloody vII!
As he continued to gaze down on the demonic entity, he heard a scrabbling footfall
behind him. Startled, he swung around quickly, only to find that Errol had finally ]oined
him. Drew had understood Errols reluctance to examine the beast with him, having
already been set upon up in the lava-chamber above by one of its brethren. He could see
now why Errol had been so badly shaken by the experience. To be savagely attacked by
a IIvIng snarling creature like this would have been more than enough to shake an) man
rigid! God! And how thing s!anK, too!
Come to face your demons", mate?" he asked Errol, quietly. And when Errol nod-
ded wordlessly, staring down at the horror before them, Drew added, ! guess were aII
going to have to brace ourselves, old son! ! have a sneaking feeling there are a hell of a
lot mI where this bastard came from! And ! mean "Hell"!"
!ve been coming to that same conclusion for the past week myself, Drew!" said
Errol in a hoarse whisper, as if afraid he might awaken the dead gargoyle. ! was the only
one who got a IaII) IaI look at the goddamn thing, remember! But ! didnt want to put
my impression into words, in case you guys laughed at me! Now you know why ! was a
tad shook up! !s this the sam one, do you think?" Drew now understood all too well
Errols reluctance to take a chance on encountering more of the things. He must have
really had to steel himself to return to the chamber - let alone the guts it must have taken
for Errol to ]ump down the same shaft that the beast had leapt down! He was impressed
with his partners nerve.
Now that Errol had faced his fear up close and personal", he seemed to have over-
come the dread that had ridden him, and he showed no undue concern when Drew asked
him to lift one end of the cylinder whilst he dragged the body from underneath it. !t felt
extraordinarily light in weight. Then, in order to see it better, they had to haul it by the
skinny wrists into the brighter light of the calor lamp in the cavern itself. !t was only when
they turned the body over that they discovered it possessed two pendulous, sacklike flaps
of skin running from ]ust above its elbows and connecting to its hips. They appeared
almost like wings at first, until Drew mentioned their resemblance to the skin flaps found
on glider-possums.
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That was I!! That was wna! !n) sn when the creature in the upper cavern
above the shaft had dived into the pit with wna! IsmDI wIngs outspread. !t had
obviously been able to glide down easily, like a sky-stunt parachutist! !t hadnt ]umped to
a suicidal death as Errol must have thought.
Then Drew thought about the air-current that rose fairly strongly up the shaft. A
creature this light mIgn! even be capable of actually being II/! up on it, like a KI!! Not
exactly the cheeriest of thoughts he had had thus far, but one that had to be seriously
considered. The more he thought it over, the more he realized it must be true. !f so, then
the girls were in considerable danger up aloft, alone and unprotected! He turned away
and headed for the radio. But before he reached the redoubt, he realized something else
- Chas was not to be seen anywhere along the great cavern! He asked Errol if hed any
idea where the professor might have gone, but all Errol could say was that the old guy had
been right behind him when Drew went to look at the creature. Drew had visions of the
other horrors sneaking up on Chas from behind and, before he could raise the alarm,
spiriting him soundlessly away into the depths.
Then Drews whirling mind leveled itself out. `First things first! Nust warn Narianne
and Hazel about the danger! He hurried into the small cave that was now their base, and
as he headed for the radio-transceiver, the first thing his eyes fell upon was Chass body
stretched out upon the pile of blankets and tarps in a corner of the cave. The professor
was snoring stertorously in a deep slumber! `Thank God for that! Drew sighed to himself
in sheer relief. `The poor old bloke must have been absolutely buggered! He poke his
head out of the narrow doorway and clicked his fingers to attract Errol, who was standing
staring about him in a bemused fashion.
!ts OK, mate!" Drew called softly. The Profs got his head down in here! And
maybe )u should do the same, pal! !ll keep CK) while you and him have a couple of
hours kip - then you can do the same for me. All right?"
Errol agreed with alacrity, as he was weary after all the stress hed recently suffered.
What are )u going to do while were sleeping, Drew?" he asked. Hope youre not going
to pull any Lone Ranger" Clint Eastwood - Arnie Schwarzenegger stunts with those god-
damn boogeyman lizard-things, buddy, are you?"
But Drew shook his head. G-amn is dead IIgn!, mate!" he said. Then he
added reassuringly. No, Errol, you can relax, old chum. !ll spend my time having a
decent yarn with Narianne in here. !t 1s my bloody !uIn, if you recall!"
Then as Errol carefully wiggled some of the blankets out from under Chass snoring
form, Drew called up the girls on the transceiver. Narianne answered, much to his delight,
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and he en]oyed a few minutes of intimate lovey-dovey small talk with her before asking
how theyd got on in the storm. She assured him that there had been relatively little
seepage thus far into the tunnel system, but that Jimmy ORourke - at their insistence -
had decided to stay with them below ground.
Apparently, Jimmy had some bee in his bonnet about their comings and goings
having disturbed the Wand]ina spirits from the northwest region of Australia where his
full-blood aboriginal mother had been raised. As a piccaninny, she had told him that they
were a race of unearthly beings who had come down from the sky to dwell in Australia,
causing a great upheaval of fiery rocks" (vIans, pInaps7} as they did so. They
apparently possessed enormous powers over the elements and were the bringers of storms
and cyclones, as well as the monsoon rains that drenched all of northern Australia in the
Wet Season. They could summon up rain clouds and caused the lightning to flash and
strike, as well as the thunder to crack and boom.
!n addition to all this, they were the source of all new growth and fertility, and filled
the rivers and creeks of the land with their life-giving spirit. They were also fearsome
warriors, capable of vast destruction when their wrath was kindled, by the floods and
lightning-bolts they sent upon their enemies. !t was wise to avoid angering them, for even
though they no longer dwelled on the land, their spirits still rested in their painted images
and could quickly be aroused if suddenly startled by the intrusion of humans. Therefore,
men should take great care to announce themselves before entering the sacred chambers
that contained their images.
Drew had heard many such tales himself in his childhood on the property from
aboriginal hands - including Jimmy himself - and had often pondered whether these
Dreamtime legends might have had some real foundations in fact, way back in time. He
also thought about the aboriginal rock-paintings up at the outcrop, above the tunnel
where hed come upon the severed head of the steer! !n fact, !na! was another thing that
had occupied his thoughts more than a little since examining the demonic creature out in
the main cave. Could there perhaps be a relationship between the creatures theyd en-
countered here and whatever demonic killers had so viciously attacked that poor steer?
As all this flashed through his mind, Narianne had continued talking, unaware of his
momentary abstraction.
Er.. sorry, love!" he blurted. Nissed that bit . What were you saying?"
! was ]ust saying that your aboriginal people over here have some very similar ideas
and beliefs to our own in Canada - and the US, too, of course!" She said. Ny own dear old
grandma was a full-blood Kwakiutl !ndian and a matriarch of her clan, and also, being a
seer helped make her a pretty big shot on vancouver !sland! Nom inherited all her
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spiritual abilities and passed them on to me. So now ! guess !m a kinda repository of all
the ancient stories and legends aboot my Grans people, and a good many others too. !
guess were getting kinda thin on the groond, noo that most of our younger folk are
marrying white people. Suppose thatll happen to me, too, one day!"
She laughed her bell-like, tinkling laugh at that, and Drew fervently hoped that hed
be the lucky white bloke whod get to share Nariannes life! However, he still had the
hardest part of his call to put across to her.
Well, ! reckon a man can only live in np!" he said, by way of a broad hint.
Anyhow, sweetheart, ! have a bit of news for you thats not so crash hot. So !d better tell
you now and you can tell Hazel, then youll both be aware!" He could hear her breathing
expectantly at the other end, but she didnt say anything, so he went on.
Dyou recall the thing that attacked Errol the other day, up in the chamber?"
Will ! ever /Ig! it!" she replied. Why? Did you find its body at the bottom of the
shaft? !t must have been pretty mangled after such a dive! Poor thing."
Well, ! hate to tell you this, love," Drew said, but there heaps of the bloody things
down here! We nearly had to fight for our lives when we first landed! They were all over
our gear at the bottom of the shaft like a bunch of scavengers! Yeah, we I find one
dead underneath some of the gear, but ! dont think it was necessarily the one that
]umped! The damn things can gII on sort of wing-flaps, and theyre so light we think
they might be able to saII DaK up !n sna/! on that rising air-current! So without wanting
to alarm you, all !m saying is that both of you should keep a careful eye out for any
unwanted visitors up there! Will you do that, Narianne? Pity ! cant send you a gun up so
that..."
Oh, dont worry aboot !na!, Drew!" Narianne said confidently. Weve got Errols
pump-action double-barrel shotgun here - its right in front of me as ! speak! And we can
both use it, too! Everybody back home goes shooting! ! started when ! was still a
papoose! So dont worry, Drew!" Then she shook him to the core with her next remark.
Oh, yeah! Nearly forgot! ! love your little redoobt down there! But ! dont care much for
the local scenery - its worse than up here!"
Drew was thunderstruck by these remarks. Now how the hell did you know about
our little fortress?" he asked. And who told you about the dismal outlook? ! suppose
Errols been shooting his big mouth off to Haz..."
Again he heard the tinkle of her laughter. No! !ts nothing like that, Drew! Did you
forget !m a ps)nI !IavIII? ! was doon there earlier when you were building your wall,
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standing right behind you! Didnt you Knw? ! thought you wouldve remembered from
when you were on the Hollow Earth list. ! talked aboot my as!IaI )uIn)s often enough,
then. ! was MInnnana. Ring any bells yet?"
Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. Of course he remembered! He recalled, a little
shamefaced, how he used to pour scorn on her aIIg travels upon the Astral Plane" to
Errol. Hed even ]oked with him about what the airfares were worth if one booked with
Astral"! He hadnt had much time then for people who claimed that they had psychic
abilities - being a young and foolish cynic of the first water!
Since then, of course, hed come to realize that there was room for aII sorts and
persuasions of folk in Hollow-Earth discussion-groups - especially after he (an III} had
been ribbed mercilessly by the other geophysics students after lousy old Din-Dins had
revealed their ghastly `secret-study sub]ect to all and sundry, and had branded them as
being gps)nI students rather than students of geophysics! Theyd both been liter-
ally labelled (D) mans / a nan-I!!I n!I s!uK n !nII Im I} as GEEl-OHl-
PSYCHICS - Do not Disturb!" from then on, until they graduated - and theyd come to
wear that label with pride as a pair of stand-alones" among a bunch of crawl-arsing
conformists to orthodoxy!
He told all of this to Narianne, and she laughed her head off. Well, never mind,
Drew!" she said once shed stopped giggling, Just as long as you believe in it now! But
you know," she went on, in a more serious tone, ! could be of great help to you guys! !t
]ust occurred to me that ! could maybe scout ahead for you, once you get really going and
warn you if theres any danger, or if you took the wrong turn. All that sort of thing. Do you
get my drift?"
This sounded like a fantastic idea to Drew, but there was only one snag. How would
it work when they got out of radio-range? Or if the radio got lost or busted? How would
they get in touch then? Narianne saw what he meant, but she said shed give it some
thought and get back to him. !t was ]ust a pity Drew wasnt a psychic himself, as their
problem would then be solved! Drew told her shed have to teach him - ]ust like the
5nI / Tn AII back at Glengarry!
Then, Narianne told him that Hazel was ]ust waking up. She had kept watch over
Narianne while she went on an OBE (Ou! /-B)-xpIIn} trip down to watch them
set up their new den", and then, after learning from Errol that they were all OK, and
being very tired herself, Hazel had taken a long nap herself, leaving Narianne to hold the
fort" - with the shotgun, if necessary!
Drew suddenly realized that hed forgotten to tell her to turn off the air-compressor,
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so he hastily explained to Narianne what she must do. She said that she understood his
instructions perfectly and would do it right away..
Then, having now done what he set out to do, as well as acquire some interesting
new information himself, Drew told her hed better get back to his own affairs, as he
desperately needed some sleep himself, so hed have to rouse Errol. He whispered all his
intimate goodnights to Narianne and then, right at the end, he suddenly blurted out that
n IoVed nI! Then he quickly added, OVer and OuI! and switched off the handset.
At first he couldnt believe what hed ]ust said, but after a moment of mature reflec-
tion, he grinned to himself and murmured quietly to no one in particular: Well, old mate,
InaI ought to give her something to bloody think about for the time being - bless her
pretty little cotton socks!"
He glanced at his wristwatch and noticed, to his utter astonishment, that hed been
talking to Narianne for well over three hours! Ny Word! he pondered to himself, `Doesnt
time fly when youre having fun! He debated whether to go and check that the two calor-
gas lamps were still burning all right, but then decided not to venture out of their strong-
hold in case the demons were lying in wait for him, and ambushed him before the others
had woken up. !f that happened it would be curtains for the other two for sure, and the
whole expedition would have been a vast waste of time, effort and money. No better
wake up Errol and Chas first, take a quick look around and then crash out for a few glorious
hours of solid slumber!
He noticed his revolver lying on top of his backpack, and decided to replace the two
rounds hed fired after the demons - or whatever they were. (Tn) IaII) wuI nav !
m up wI!n a snsIDI nam /I !nm1} He scrabbled inside his backpack for a box of
ammo, and then, ]ust as he pushed a couple of fresh rounds into the chamber of his
revolver, spun it, and clicked it back into place again, he heard it. Something. Outside in
the main chamber. He stood stock still and listened intently for a moment. Yes! There
it was again! A pitter-pattering sound, ]ust like the first fat drops of rain falling on a tent
canopy before a storm - or a Ioody 1nVas1on! He suddenly realized that what he could
hear was the pattering of many bare, three-toed feet upon the rock chamber floor out-
side! He aimed a swift kick at Errols booted foot, and gave Chas a sharp smack on the
cheek, then poked his head out carefully through the narrow entry gap in their roughly
erected wall. Luckily, the two calor-gas lamps were still burning quite brightly, so he was
able to see easily. But what he saw made the hairs rise on the back of his neck.
A throng of at least forty or fifty of the demonic creatures were creeping stealthily
down the centre of the cavern toward their dead companion! Whether they were bent
upon extracting revenge for his death or merely recovering his body, was anyones guess,
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but at least they hadnt had the sense or the technical understanding to turn out the two
lamps, thank Heaven!
They still hadnt seen him, so Drew risked a glance back over his shoulder, thankfully
to see that Errol had woken up, spotted him in the doorway holding his revolver, and had
summed up the situation at once. Errol drew his own revolver, and as Chas started to
show signs of a noisy awakening, clamped his hand over his mouth.
Chass eyes suddenly bulged wide open in fear, until he saw Errol standing over him
with the barrel of his revolver laid against his pursed lips in a clear signal for silence.
Relieved, Chas waved an acknowledging hand and rose quietly to his feet, feeling around
under his blanket for his own revolver. Then they both crept quietly over to peer out
through the narrow opening at whatever was holding Drews attention. Drew felt Errols
body tense beside him when he saw the group of fearsome beings outside, grouping
around their dead member.
But it was Chass sharp, horrified intake of breath when he saw them, that caught
the sharp ears of the demons. Several turned around and glared straight at them. Then,
quite literally, all Hell broke loose! As the demons began loping towards them, Drew
coolly picked off three of them, and Errol shot two more. The ones behind them stumbled
over the fallen and were also shot before they could rise. At this sudden slaughter of their
leaders, the rest slowed, and several turned and ran.
As the mob stood and hesitated, Drew shot three more of their number, and snatched
Chass fully-loaded gun out of his trembling fingers, at the same time yelling ReIoad Ine
Ioody In1ng, qu1cR! As this little scene took place, Errol managed to drop another two
and winged a third in the shoulder. The rest of the enemy - for such they now certainly
wI - began to retreat, gibbering gutturally among themselves, and as they backed
away, Errol risked his last round and shot another, taller member of their number, who
appeared to be issuing commands of some sort.
As he fell, the remainder now turned into a howling, demoralized rabble and fled the
scene scampering wildly for the farther end of the chamber. Drew, now armed again,
leapt out of the entry and managed to drop another unlucky two from at least fifty yards
range. Then they were gone, and apart from the snarling groans of the wounded creature
whose shoulder had been shattered, silence once more descended upon the scene. Errol
hastened to the box of ammunition to reload his and chass revolvers, in case the savage
entities regrouped and attempted another charge. But none came.
A quick visual count revealed that no less that sixteen of the devils had been killed
and one, their chief, severely wounded. Not at all bad bag for two young geophysicists in
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their first real armed affray! However, neither Drew nor Errol felt over confident. They
knew that they hadnt seen the last of their foe by a long shot!
Drew now moved over to where the tall fiendish creature lay slumped against a
large rock nursing its shattered shoulder and collarbone - for its anatomy appeared to be
even more similar to that of a human then that of its underlings. However, it still had a
distinctly reptilian appearance, being covered by greeny-grey scales, and possessing a
distinctly lizard-like tail. !ts glaring, hate-filled eyes, instead of being largely wide-open
black pupil, as those of the rest were, looked much more reptilian, in that its irises were
exposed and they were of an amber-greenish colour, reminiscent of those of crocodiles,
and with a vertical, feline slit-like pupil which had clearly accommodated itself consider-
ably to counter the brightly-lit cavern.
!t was generally a more manlike beast, but nonetheless still bestial, as its ferocious
threatening snarls and growls demonstrated as Drew warily approached it, gun at the
ready. He approached as close as he dared in case it made a sudden lunge at him with its
grisly-looking vampirish fangs. !t strove to rise to its back feet as he came closer, and
revealed that it had legs more like the hind limbs of a goat or sheep, upon which the scales
appeared to have become specialized somewhat into the form of thick spinelike hairs,
giving its haunches an even more goatlike appearance.
!n fact, it looked to Drew like nothing so much as a satyr - the lustful half-goat, half-
human creature of Greek and Roman legends. This was also supported by its possession
of prominent male ram-like genitalia, and short corrugated bent horns that curved for-
ward above its protruding browridge! `Bloody Hell! thought Drew, when he recognized
the likeness. `This bloke must have been the original model for those bloody characters
Norman Lindsay used to paint!"
Lindsay was a famous Australian artist of the early 1900s, whose semi-pornographic
paintings, ink-drawings and sculptures had en]oyed a great deal of umbrage and outraged
criticism from the churchgoing wowser" community of Australia. His pictures had largely
been lively depictions of muscular satyrs and squat dwarflike fawns romping with nude
and buxom sirens around the sunlit forests and hills of his beloved Blue Nountains coun-
tryside.
Astonishingly, ]ust as this thought occurred to Drew, the monstrous creature sud-
denly ceased its vicious snarling and contorted its hideous features into a crafty, lecherous
grimace of a smile, its amber eyes glaring knowingly up into his own from beneath heavy
brows. As he stared back almost hypnotically at its face, he saw nictitating membranes,
flicker like camera-shutters across its baleful eyes. `Ny God! He thought, `The damn thing
is IaIng m) mIn! At that same instant, he was suddenly aware that the beast was
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attempting to communicate with him by some powerful mental or psychic means! !t was
attempting to g! InsI nIs na1 For a moment he almost permitted its insistent thoughts
to enter, but ]ust then, Errols voice spoke over his shoulder. Ugly-looking brute, Drew!
Needs a goddamn shower!"
At once, the near-spell was broken, and Drew saw the creatures face creased again
with an ugly snarl, and this time, instead of growling savagely, it threw back its evil head
and gave vent to a great throat-tearing roar of anger and frustration, and lunged forward
toward them both, causing them to stagger hurriedly backwards - its fetid breath and
feral stench almost overpowering them. But the pain of its massive in]uries kicked in, and
it sank back, growling and groaning again in agony.
What can we do about it?" asked Errol, anxiously. ! know its a hideous brute of
thing, but we cant ]ust leave it to suffer, buddy!" Drew had been thinking the same
thought, but as they both stood pondering they were both thrust aside as Chas suddenly
pushed his way between them, a revolver clenched firmly in his fist.
Without any preamble, the doughty Scot pointed the weapon straight at the demons
head and squeezed the trigger. Nore by chance than design, the bullet took the beast
directly in the centre of its forehead, and its evil skull exploded like an overripe melon,
splashing them all with blood and brains. The two younger men reeled back in horror,
feverishly trying to brush and shake the mess off their clothes and skin, but Chas fired two
more rounds into the still-writhing body. !t gave one great convulsive shuddering heave
then slumped down dead.
Then the professor slowly turned toward Drew and Errol with a look of grim satisfac-
tion on his gore-spattered face. Thieres a bluidy fenish tae the Deil-spawned bluidy
creature!" he cried, allowing the revolver to slip from his trembling grasp. Ahm no a mon
for guns and killin, but Ah could see that yon demon amoost had ye in his thrall, Andrae!
Nan! Could ye no sns that! Ah could feel the raw power o the fiendish thing, mahself
even from away ower there!"
Then he sat down on a stone slab with his elbows on his knees and held his head
between his hands. Thats the fairst time Ahve ever fired a peestol in anger, lads, but
Ahve nae doot it wilnae be the lairst, noo! Ga /Igv m!"
Errol ran to his side. Sir!" he said, in a tone of great admiration. Dont punish
yourself! You were great, professor! You did real good!" Chas removed his face from his
hands and stared at Errol, his eyes opening wide in outrage. Whaits that ye said? DI
IaI g? Nannie! What kind ogrammar is !na!? Yere a bluidy graduate o the finest
univairsity in the Ainglish-speaking world, an ye canna phrase yer remarks anny baitter
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than a bluidy Glessgie hooligan! Ye should be bluidy ashamed oyersel, man!"
But here Drew put in his two-cents worth. Chas, were pIu of you! !ts a true
pleasure to have you along! Heaven alone knows what that - that - In1ng might have
made me do if you hadnt ]ust stepped in and done what T should have done first off!
Youre right professor, it was trying to mess with my mind, an ! had a revolver in my
hand, too!" He paused to reflect upon the possible terrible outcome, had Errol not butted
in, and Chas put paid to the brute. Errol, ! suspect that Chas is absolutely right! Were
not ]ust dealing with some weird subterranean race here. ! got the message loud and
clear from !na! - he nodded toward the grisly corpse. !m rapidly coming to the certain
conclusion that Hell" is a IaI place, that the Devil" really s exist, and that !ns
things are his minions!" He paused again, then he added: !f you blokes want to quit right
here and now, ! wont blame you one iota! Well call it a day and you can go back up
without any criticism from me! Youve both already showed amazing guts, and.."
And what would )u do if we I quit?" asked Errol. And before drew could speak he
answered for him. Youd go on aIn - wouldnt you, you mad bastard? Errol poked out
his square chin aggressively. Well you can forget !na!, buddy! !m coming with you! !f
we have to march right down through goddamn Hell itself, youre noI going aIone!"
Aye! An that goes for mansa1I1, too!" put in Chas, vehemently. Even ef Ah hae tae
shoot aIvI) hellish thing that pops up afore me!"
Then Errol finally capped the whole lunatic business off by saying: Er - excuse me
for commenting, Prof, but thats Be1ore me, sir!" And then, when the professor turned
and stared at him in puzzlement, he added, You said a1ore me" - didnt he, Drew? Yu
heard him! Didnt he distinctly say... "
Drew simply threw up his hands in mock despair. Dont try to bloody drag m into
this, you crazy Yankee galah!" he laughed, happily.
Neanwhile, up in the great lava chamber, two miles above, Hazel and Narianne
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were respectively lying and sitting inside their makeshift tent-hut, whilst Jimmy mounted
a watchful guard ]ust outside, armed with one of Bobs hunting rifles - and paying par-
ticular attention to the shaft, in case anything should fly out of it.
Unbeknown to the girls, Jimmy was showing great courage in doing this. He came
from a culture in which powerful good or evil gods lurked in virtually everything known to
mankind. He had been brought up to venerate the almighty Rainbow Serpent, by whom
his mothers tribe believed everything had been created, and to whom all of the rich
panapoly of mythical gods and spirits revered by his people owed their own origins. The
Rainbow Serpent was the greatest of all the gods, and was seen in the rainbow as a giant
snake that stretched between the sky and the earth. To many aboriginal tribes this Rain-
bow Serpent was the great creative source of all life, and of rivers, which, in a great arid
continent such as Australia, are of paramount importance for the sustenance of that life.
To the aborigines of Australia, the Dreamtime was the equivalent in meaning to
what the Garden of Eden or the Golden Age represented to the white fellers". !t had been
a time of great semi-human giants - much like the great heroes and gods of ancient
Greece or of the Scandinavians. To the aborigines, The Earth was then a great flat plain,
devoid of any features. And it was the diggings, burrowing and shifting of rocks done by
these great giant people as they went about their normal, everyday lives that had built the
mountains that men see today. Now, although the Dreamtime was ended and these
mighty giants were long gone, their gigantic earthworks and other great natural features
such as Ayers Rock, the mountain ranges and the deep gorges remained. However,
many strange spirits and ghosts still inhabited trees, rock-hollows, caves and waterholes,
and great care had to be taken to appease them and to avoid offending them. These
included the Bunyips and the Yowies - and even the feared Wand]ina - the white spirits of
those who had come down from the sky!
Nany of the tribal aborigines also believed the sRy to be the realm of the dead,
unlike other cultures and religions, and that their spirits would be guided there after death
by night birds, to be welcomed Home by the spirits of long lost friends or companions to
a new Heaven-like land of plenty and peace and good weather. Others believed that the
ghosts of their dead went to some far-flung, inaccessible mountain range or suchlike
distant place, and that they were ferried there by a ghostly Charon"-like boatman across
some distant lake or a river.
Thus Jimmy ORourke was very familiar with the concept of benevolent and malevo-
lent spirits, and believed that so long as he didnt offend them, they wouldnt harm him.
Trouble only came to those who deliberately went out into the spirit-world or their haunts,
and trespassed upon their private preserves, or disturbed their peaceful repose. The
white mans gods and demons were of little concern to him, even though he had been told
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about them at the Nission School he had attended as a child. Had he known of the OBE
activities of Narianne, it would have been of little moment to him.
And, probably, because of this unconcern for the white fellers" gods and beliefs,
Jimmy thought he was immune to the creatures that dwelt in the depths below.
Neanwhile, Narianne who was sitting awake in their yurt-like tent, had heard the
sound of the ragged shots far below, carried up by the megaphone-like shaft with a
startling clarity. But, while Hazel slept, she refused to slip away, even for a few minutes,
in her astral form to see for herself what the ruckus was about. She had tried to attract the
attention of one of the trio by means of the radio-link, but they were obviously too busily
engaged in other matters to notice the signal-light blinking on their transceiver. !t would
be unfair to rouse Hazel, who was still en]oying a good deep sleep. She would wait
another hour, she told herself, and then try calling Drew again. !f she s!III got no re-
sponse, then she would nav to wake Hazel and attempt another astral ]ourney, ]ust to
make sure that all was well with them.
She had no idea what the time IaII) was. Her wrist watch told her it was ten-fifteen
but whether ÀN or `PN, she couldnt really decide. Anyhow, time was comparatively
irrelevant below ground as there was no direct means of seeing the sky. The only way they
would know this for sure would be to ask Jimmy to climb partway up the fumarole pipe,
until he could see the sky. Or she could call Glengarry. But if it was night, she might
waken young Charlie, who had the transceiver near his bed, and he would probably fetch
Bob and Joan, and theyd get alarmed.. No. Shed wait.
!n the meantime, she had better get Jimmy to check the fuel-tank on the generator.
The last thing they needed right now was to suddenly be plunged into darkness. Sure,
they had the calor-gas lamp inside the tent, but Jimmy would be in the dark outside. He
could easily stumble over the edge of the shaft if the lights went out and he didnt have a
torch, and tried to grope his way up to the gallery.
She poked her head around the door-flap of their rough and ready `yurt and saw
Jimmy sitting apparently half-dozing against a rock. But he wasnt asleep. He had learned
long ago how to sleep with one eye open, whilst driving sheep and cattle. There wasnt a
dingo alive that could have crept past him without waking him instantly - as many ma-
rauding wild dogs had found out the hard way, by the sudden impact of a bullet in the
head or heart!
You all right, missus?" he called softly, the whites of his eyes and teeth shining out
in a friendly grin from the dark shadow of the rock. Heard some gunshots a while back.
Come from down there!" He pointed toward the mouth of the shaft. But ! hear Nister
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Drew shouting angry-like to somebody, so they be right, ! reckon!" Then he noticed
Narianne was still looking at him hesitantly. You want somethin, missus?" he asked,
getting to his feet.
Narianne quietly told him about her concerns regarding the generator, so he went
straight off to check the fuel tank, with his rifle under his arm and, thankfully, a small torch
in his hand. She took the opportunity of his brief absence to relieve herself, and when
she went back into their yurt, Hazel was already stirring into wakefulness.
Whut toime es ut?" she asked drowsily as she sat up, stretching her arms and
yawning. Narianne told her it was something to eleven. Us ut stall night-toime, thin?
How long heve Oi bin asleep, love?" she yawned again, and shook her head.
Narianne told her about five or six hours. Then she mentioned the shots, and how
Jimmy had heard Drew shouting a one of the others in anger. Dont ask me hoo he heard
him from two miles down!" she added. He must have ears like a fox!"
Where us Jummy? Hes he gone beck up top agine, now? Thought he was going
to stiy with us?" But when Narianne told her he was ]ust checking the generator fuel,
Hazel relaxed. Oill till you whut, Narianne!" she said, wistfully. Oi could ]ust eat some-
thing noice, love! A beg plite of bicon en iggs `n a noice hot cup of tead ]est go down a
rual treat, roight about now!"
At that point they heard Jimmy returning. Only me, Jimmy, missus! ! ]ust topped
up the fuel on the generator, so shell be right for good while now. Stopped raining now,
too. Nice day up top, missus!"
Narianne was glad to know that it was morning instead of night. Hows the fuel
going, Jimmy, by the way?" she answered lifting the flap and talking to him directly. !t
was a matter of importance that they kept a sharp eye on their supplies of fuel and water.
Bob had promised to send Nike back with more supplies in a day or two, so they needed
to know what was getting particularly low.
However, Jimmy said the first ]errycan was still about a third full, and there was
another full one to go after that. Theres some big pools of clean water up there,
missus!" he said pointing away toward the gallery. Naybe ! pan some up into the first
water-drum. That ones only half-full now. You want me to do that?" She said that would
be a good idea. She was also worried about how the men were going for water, down
below. Theyd only dropped a few plastic bottles of it down on one of the car-cover
parachutes. Perhaps the water from the storm might seep down there eventually? Shed
ask Drew when she called him on the radio-link.
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She thanked Jimmy, who grinned and said Sorright, Nissus!" then went and sat in
his previous spot, then, ]ust as she turned to go back inside, it occurred to her that he
didnt appear to have anything to eat. But Hazel had already thought of that, as she was
now making them a scratch meal of rye biscuits, sardines and tomatoes. They had plenty
of fruit and tinned stuff as well as crackers, biscuits and other packet foods as well as
canned soups and other HeatnServe" meals. There was even some UHT milk in one-litre
packs, which would last them a fair while. And Nike would no doubt be bringing more in
a day or two.
However, there were two things that Narianne wanted to do as a matter of priority.
The first, naturally enough was to contact Drew, and check that they really were OK, and
the other was to try to teach Hazel the rudiments of OBEs.
She wasnt sure if Hazel would make a good sub]ect for this, being rather a worldly
down-to-earth" sort of person. But if all else failed she might a! Ias! be able to help her
to get into Pm! VIwIng or even simple telepathy. !f the latent psychic gift was
there, shed do her best to bring it out! The biggest hurdle - that of cynicism - had
already been overcome, after her being able to describe Drews surroundings to him over
the radio. Hazel had marveled at this, and had said she wished sn could do !n! sI! /
ps)nI s!u//1 As far as Narianne was concerned, if Hazel truly believed and was willing to
try her best, it would help enormously!
!t was ]ust after Hazel had taken some food out to Jimmy, that the radio phone
suddenly buzzed and flashed. !t was Errol. He told Narianne that Drew was now taking
a well-earned sleep, after a marathon effort of staying awake and alert since they had
descended the shaft. So he and Chas were now manning the ramparts. He asked where
Hazel was. And when Narianne told him she was ]ust outside chatting to Jimmy, he took
the opportunity to tell her all that had transpired since her last contact with Drew. Espe-
cially about the demonic lizard-like creatures (which he described in some vivid detail) and
how they had apparently routed the reptilians", at least for the moment. He asked her to
soft-pedal" all this if she discussed it with Hazel, as she might begin to get panicky -
which was the last thing he wanted! At that point, Hazel returned and was delighted
when Narianne handed her the handset, telling her it was Errol. So whilst she ate her
breakfast, she listened to Hazels ]ovial chitchat with him, then, when the conversation
began to get personal, she went outside for a while and left her friend to it. She chatted
to Jimmy for a while and then wandered over to the edge of the shaft. !t then occurred to
her that she should ask Errol how they were going for water and supplies.
As she turned to go back to their yurt, her eye fell upon the air-compressor, which
was standing idle with the air-hose still connected to the outlet pipe. !t struck her then
that the now-unused hose could carry other things than ]ust plain air. !t was a simple way
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to top up the mens water supplies down below! She hurried back inside ]ust as Hazel was
saying her fond farewells to Errol. She pointed urgently at the phone and then herself,
miming holding it to her own ear. Hazel understood her mimicry, and quickly bidding Errol
a fond adieu and that Narianne wished to speak, she passed the handset over to her.
Hi!" she said, quickly. Hope youre all okay doon there! !s he still? Oh, well, he cn
always call me when he wakes up, if he has time! ! ]ust wanted to ask how your water was
holding oot? No. !ts ]ust that ! had this wee idea. Hoos about you get all the empty
bottles together, and we pour you some fresh water doon the air-pipe? Aw! Get outta
here, you old charmer! !t wasnt !na! brilliant...Eh? Oh, Yeah! Jimmy found itd run
doon into the gallery ootside here and formed several good pools. So ! figured itd be a
shame to ]ust let it go to waste..Yeah! Otherwise itll take a heckuva time to seep doon
through the rocks to where you guys are, an its stopped storming noo! Right! !ll give
you a quick call when were ready to start pouring it into the pipe! See you later, Errol -
an !aK aI, you guys. `Bye!"
Then she told Hazel about the thought shed had of pouring water down the plastic
air-hose direct to where the fellows were camped, two miles lower. !ll go get Jimmy
onto collecting the water raight away." she said. Then ! want to have a serious talk with
you, Hazel! And, NO! !ts not aboot Errol, honey, its aboot.. Well, youll soon find oot!"
Then she went outside and had a word with Jimmy. Luckily, there were several empty
spring-water bottles, so Jimmy was able to collect them up easily and begin filling them.
Leaving him to his task, Narianne went back to Hazel, and began to give her a crash
introductory-course in matters pertaining to the psychic in general and Astral Travel in
particular...
* * *
Two miles vertically below them, Chas and Errol sat awaiting Nariannes call. They
already had their empty water-bottles standing in a small cluster beneath the open end of
the air-hose, ready to be filled from on high. Drew was still slumbering deeply into his fifth
hour. He had told Errol to wake him after the fourth, but his friend had decided that Drew
needed as much sleep as he could get, in readiness for their next move.
Before he went to sleep, Drew had suggested to Errol that it was time for them to
press on with their huge ]ourney, regardless of whatever devils might be lurking in wait for
them. They had two primary weapons which they knew their enemies respected. Guns
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and lights. The only worry they had about these was keeping up a supply of ammunition
and torch-batteries! There was ]ust no way they could take all their gear with them,
apart from their backpacks, weapons, climbing ropes and harnesses. Their backpacks
would have to be stuffed with as much sustenance, in the way of Survival Kits and water-
bottles, as they could reasonably carry. The rest would have to wait till they had set up
another base-camp further down. Their first priority was to see if there were any further
deep shafts exiting from this present magma reservoir cavern. Drew had rather expected
to find a continuation of the main shaft more or less vertically beneath the one theyd
already descended, perhaps choked with fallen rock debris. But he was doomed to
disappointment. Chas told him that it was probable that their present great chamber had
been fed by several vertical tubes and fissures, and that these might well prove to be
choked by solidified magma.
After their victory over the reptilians and the killing of their leader, they had taken a
chance on being attacked again, by venturing well beyond their farthest calor-lantern,
into the dark distant reaches of the cavern. However, if they na been observed - which
was more or less a moral certainty - the reptilians must have noted the revolvers they
gripped resolutely in their hands. The death-dealing capacity of these had obviously
registered deeply in the minds of the monsters, for the three adventurers never saw hide
or hair of any of them. However, their search bore fruit when Chas almost stumbled
headlong down a pitch-black crack-like chasm that ran across the floor of one of the
caverns further reaches.
Fortunately, as he fell, his hands struck the flat floor opposite, though his revolver
skittering from his grasp, and almost plummeting down the yard-wide fissure. Luckily
too, he had ]ust pocketed his hand-torch, in order to grasp his gun firmly in both hands,
police-fashion, for better aim in case of a surprise encounter. So, by grasping the back
edge of his safari-]acket, Drew and Errol were able to haul him back to safety, before his
trembling body finally sagged in the middle. However, his gun still lay on the opposite
edge of the crevasse, about a metre away. Too far for any of them to reach it by stretching
out an arm.
They stood and pondered the problem for a moment. Then Errol glancing along the
edge of the fissure saw that, away too his left, it began to narrow. He only had to walk
alongside it for some twenty-five feet until he found a section that was only two feet wide.
He stepped across the space easily then came back along the other side and stooped to
pick up the weapon. But as he did so, Drew saw a pair of threatening figures looming out
of the inky darkness beyond Errol. Without hesitation, he aimed and fired, dropping one
dead in its tracks, whilst the other turned and fled whence it had come.
Errol snatched up Chass revolver and raced back the way hed come. But there
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were no more suicidal sallies by the reptilians, and he made it back to the others safely.
However, before they turned back, they took a short walk along the chasm to their right,
and found that it soon widened much further to ten or twelve feet across.
Hmmmmm..1n!Is!Ing!" said Drew, who was now feeling bone-weary from his
long spell of wakefulness. Pity ! forgot to fetch a couple of those damned flares!" But he
was too tired to go back and hunt out the flares, then walk all the length of the chamber
again. Sorry, fellers," he said apologetically, but thisll ]ust have to wait till !ve had a
decent kip. !m out on my bloody feet!" So, with that, they made their watchful way back
along the long chamber toward their redoubt.
None of them had been greatly surprised to find that their erstwhile pIIz-Dag- the
body of the tall satyr-like reptilian - had been spirited away in their absence. All that
remained was a large patch of sticky blood on the slab of rock against which it had slumped.
Drew pointed this out as an ob]ect-lesson to his companions. Were going to have to
grow bloody eyes in the backs of our heads, you blokes! These accursed creatures arent
quI! as saI of us as wed like to !nInK!"
As theyd entered their hideout, Chas had paused and taken a long look back up the
cavern. Hed noticed a curious anomaly among the igneous rocks and solidified magma at
the far end of the cavern. He was sure hed seen classic traces of limestone or sandstone
strata - which is not usually associated with volcanoes. His mind raced as the others
went in ahead of him. What if this volcano had burst up through a region of what had
once in some dim and distant past era been part of a large coral reef? What if the entire
thick lava-field of the Undara Province covered some extremely ancient limestone or sand-
stone region?
!f this were so, then the whole geological picture would change quite dramatically.
The volcanic upthrust of the hundred and sixty-odd volcanoes could easily account for the
elevation of the province, so the region could easily have once been part of an ancient
coast or even part of a seabed, now covered deeply by a thick layer of disgorged lava rock.
!f this were so, then they might be able to sidestep any possible hotspot by following the
limestone or sandstone caves and tunnels which he knew would very probably exist from
a pre-volcanic time!
He knew that much of Australia had once been covered by seas. The Simpson
Desert, for example, had been a submerged until fairly recent geological times, between
70 to 90 million years ago. This was why it contained so much salt, as was exemplified by
the giant salt-lake, Lake Eyre. Thus at the very least, they might find themselves de-
scending through sedimentary rocks if they kept to the southern edge of the volcanos
perimeter, and these could well have been water-eroded long before the volcanoes of the
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Undara province began erupting! Yes! There was a distinct chance that, even if a hotspot
still persisted below them, they uI avoid it!
He had hurried in to tell them of his conclusions, only to find Errol standing with a
hushing finger upon his lips and pointing down to Drews recumbent form among the
blankets. Drew was already sliding into unconsciousness, finally overwhelmed by total
physical exhaustion. After allowing him a few moments to sink into deep dreamless
unconsciousness, Errol and Chas were able to converse together in low tones. Errol told
him that Drew had spoken briefly of pressing on after hed rested, and that they would
need to travel as light as was reasonable, and that they were to rest up themselves as
much as possible.
Chas had then fished his notebook out of his backpack and begun to write up the
first page of his proposed daily record of their adventures. Whilst the professor covered
several pages with his tiny crabbed handwriting, Errol had sat in the doorway keeping a
watchful eye out for any further signs of activity by their demonic foe, occasionally sipping
from a bottle of spring-water and contemplating the events of the past couple of days. He
dozed off a couple of times, and Chas had to lay aside his writing, to take over the watch
until Errol woke up again. After that Errol had decided to call the girls, and it was then that
Narianne had told him about the water-restocking notion shed had. Now they had been
waiting for a further half-hour whilst they got the water together up top.
!t was as they sat waiting that Errol himself had a bright idea concerning the hosepipe.
Hed been taking an inventory of the stuff they would have to carry with them, and hed
found that they needed to stock up with the small heavy-duty AA batteries that powered
their helmet lamps and torches. These were about as thick as a finger, and it occurred to
him that they should easily fit inside sections of hose, which the girls could then tie off at
each end and drop down to them, thus avoiding damage to their terminals. However,
this led him to a far simpler idea. He was ]ust about to mention it to Chas, when the radio
signal light began to blink.
He answered it and heard Nariannes voice. She told him that they were now ready
to send down the water. Did he have their empties ready. He replied Yep! Ready when
you are!" Then she told him to hold up a bottle close to the end of the hose. Errol having
one hand tied up with the phone, passed this on to Chas, who did the honours. Right!"
he called.
Narianne then said: On a count of three - but it might take a few seconds to reach
you! Are you ready?"
Och, Aye!" cried Chas, much to Errols and Nariannes surprise! He had heard her
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voice perfectly clearly throughout the two-mile length of tubing!
OK!" laughed Narianne. Here comes the first bottle! One- Two-THP!" Chas
held the bottle and hose tightly together, then, after a few brief seconds a sudden gush of
water gurgled out into the bottle, filling it almost to the neck. Chas quickly screwed on
the cap and raised the next bottle. This time he heard her count, without any need for
Errol to relay the phoned signal, and a second bottle was soon filled.
From then on it was plain sailing, and they soon had at least twenty bottles of water
filled to the brim. As Narianne called down that that was it for now, Errol immediately
asked her if they had a reasonable supply of the small batteries. She went away, and a
couple of minutes later Errol heard Hazels voice, calling him.
Whuve found a whole blinking box full of betteries!" she laughed. Two-A, dud you
siy?" Errol quickly assured her that they were indeed the ones they needed.
Will, said Hazel How dyou want us to sind thim? Oi suppose we could troy rugging
up some sort of a perechute, love - what dyou rickon?"
No, No!" cried Errol, ! want you to try sliding one wn !n nspIp! Yes! You
heard me right! Honey! Just poke one into the tube and lets see if it slides all the way
down. OK? Have you got one, there? PIgn!1 Do it - NOW1" Then he told Chas to lower
the pipe-end to the stone floor. And, Lo and Behold! Within a few brief seconds a battery
whizzed out and rolled away into the corner.
Weel, Ahll be damned!" cried the professor, delighted by the idea. !ts ]ust like yon
shopfolk haid when Ah was a wee bairn and mah Nammy took me tae the beeg depairt-
ment-stoore alang Princes Street! They had a verra seemilair system tae send messages
and sma change doon frae the offices up on the top floor.." But he had to stop talking
there and concentrate upon grabbing up the precious batteries as they shot out of the
hosepipe like bullets from a machine gun!
Within minutes, they had a couple of helmets full of the little black and gold cylin-
ders of energy. Errol picked up the end of the hose and bellowed into it. Worked like a
goddamn charm!" Then Hazels laughing voice echoed back down: Dud you git thim all?
We sint you half the carton down! Us thet unough, or dyou want some more?" Errol
yelled back up the pipe, assuring her that they had as many as they could carry.
However, all the laughter and hilarity had awoken Drew, who now sat up with a
rather dazed expression. What the bloody hells happening?" he asked struggling to his
feet. Been having a bloody party, fellers? ! could have sworn ! heard Hazel laughing!"
He stared hard at his two grinning companions. OK, you two!" he said, Whats been
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going on, you grinning apes?"
Errol said nothing, he simply pointed to the two helmets full of shining batteries, and
then the cluster of full bottles of water. Hows about all !na!, buddy!" he leered trium-
phantly. All done with smoke and mirrors! Plus a bit of good old North American ingenu-
ity!"
Drew was totally astounded at this welcome sight. How the hell..What did you
bloody.." But Chas cut him off short.
!f youll ]ust pipe doon for a minute." he began, then realizing what hed ]ust said,
the professor suddenly burst into a loud cackle of laughter, in which he was ]oined by
Errol, and the two reeled about helpless with mirth for a good minute, whilst Drew stood
staring in puzzlement. Aw, come on fellers!" he cried finally, Whats so bloody amusing?"
Then Errol and Chas explained to Drew Nariannes bright idea about topping up
their water-supplies and Errols subsequent thought about how to get the extra batteries
by using the same method. He was suitably impressed, and somewhat relieved, too, that
they had at least the means to progress further without worry on those particular scores.
Well not for a while, at any rate! The time would inevitably come however, when they
would be forced to make the best of what they came upon as they ventured deeper.
Thinking of which, theyd better make a start on doing exactly !na!. They couldnt hang
around here ]ust two miles down forever, with God knew how many hundreds more to go!
Right, fellers!" said Drew, briskly. !ts time that we made our really big move. So
this is the last chance for anyone to pull out if they dont think theyre up to it! ! wont
think any the worse of either of you if you decide to call it a draw and want to go back up!
What weve already done and faced together convinces me youre both great blokes with
a ton of guts! So lets here it once and for all - Are you game to go on or do you want to
withdraw?" He looked at them both expectantly, but they both stood and grinned back at
him.
No way, Jose!" said Errol emphatically. !m no goddamn quitter, buddy, and you
Knw it! !m ]ust as keen to see whats down there as you are! !m 1N! How many more
times to ! have to tell you?"
Drew smiled at him gratefully. Then they both looked at the dour Scotsman. But the
professor ]ust glared fiercely back at them. What the heill are ye looking at me for?" he
growled. D`ye think Ahm gaein tae leave ye twa snot-nosed, hairf-witted young bairns a
on yere oon, doon in the bowels o the Airth wioot a guide and mentor osome sairt tae
hoold yere honds an blaw yere noses for ye? Weell, yere wIng! Ye canna get shut of
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me that easily! So ye have nae option but tae coont m in too!"
The two hefty young giants, acting upon the same spontaneous fond impulse, hugged
the older man around the shoulders so tightly that he had to yell at them to release him so
he could draw breath!
Then they all fell to work sorting out their backpacks, casting out everything except
the barest essentials. However, even when this was done, they had to refill them with
survival ration packs, and high calorific candy bars, plus as many spare lamp batteries as
they could carry, along with a few extra items of warm clothing, blankets, climbing pitons
and harnesses, and small tools, as well as bottles of water, and a First Aid kit apiece. They
also decided to take their parachutes in case of finding further shafts, as well as a three of
the silver plastic car-cover parachutes" recovered from the debris at the base of the
shaft, since they had many possible uses.
They reluctantly decided that they would have to leave their calor-gas lamps be-
hind, even though they still contained substantial amounts of liquefied gas, they were
much too heavy to lug any further. However, there was always the chance that they might
find another shaft, on the next level down, in which case it might be possible to climb back
up to retrieve them. One needed to keep ones options wide open, Drew concluded, and
play it one step at a time. They had no idea what might lie beneath them, so there was no
point trying to guess ahead.
The final items were mandatory prerequisites - long climbing-ropes and their revolv-
ers and ammunition. Their guns were stowed in side-pouches on their backpacks for
ready access, as was part of their ammunition. Several flares went into the same pouches.
As for the ropes, they had left the makeshift chute" ropes attached to the car-covers, but
they now need one of the long ropes that hung down the pit. !t could be cut into three
lengths so that each of them could carry a coil. But first it needed to be released from
above.
Drew picked up the radio transceiver phone and went out into the cavern to call
Narianne with some degree of privacy. He quickly told her of their decision to start their
ma]or trek underground right away. He intended leaving the transceiver unit switched on,
since it was powered by the generator above, but he would carry the handset phone with
him. !t had a short antenna attached to it, so the chances were that it might still work for
some reasonable distance before they final got out of range. At least that was the claim
that the manufacturer had made for its efficiency. He would soon find out if that claim was
valid!
He then went on to ask her if all was well with themselves up above. She quickly
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told him that it was, and that she was already making some good headway with her
development of Hazel into a psychic traveller. Once Hazel had overcome the fright of her
first OBE, she had discovering that she could do it again and again, and it was now getting
easier. Hazel still had to develop her II!InaI skills, but Narianne had great hopes for
her being able to eventually locate them as they traveled below ]ust as well as she could
herself.
She assured Drew that she herself would be at his side in the spirit as much as she
could manage. Unfortunately, OBEs were not experiences that one could extend indefi-
nitely. The slumbering body would eventually begin naturally to rouse itself into wakeful-
ness if left for too long, which meant that the travelling spirit would suddenly begin to
experience a psychic tugging sensation and would soon find itself being drawn relent-
lessly home", regardless of its desire to stay on the astral plane.
Drew told her to take good care of herself and Hazel, during these forays, as he had
good reason to believe that they were up against evil satanic forces, who had already tried
to attack them physically, and might eventually resort to psychic tactics against them,
However, he intended placing all of them under the guardianship of Gods Angels of Light,
before they set forth, by means of simple prayer. He told her that he also had some
additional weapons in his backpack which he hadnt yet revealed to the other two, that
Joan had given to him before they had left Glengarry!
When she asked him what sort of weapons they were, he told her that if she really
wanted to know shed have to visit them astrally and find out for herself in around half an
hours time! Then, before they said their farewells, he asked her to cut free one of the
long ropes dangling down the shaft and let it fall down the shaft, since they would soon be
needing it on their travels.
Just as he was about to ring off, he heard Hazels voice calling. She wanted a quick
word with Errol. Drew could have kicked himself for forgetting his mates own personal
attachments! He glanced across at the entrance to their redoubt and saw Errol was
already there waving his hand and pointing at the phone and himself.
Drew beckoned him over saying: Sorry about that, old mate! Here you go!" then
he left Errol to murmur sweet nothings to his lady-love, and to hear all about her paranor-
mal adventures.
As he returned to their cave, Chas grinned up at him. Nan!" he said," Ahve never
seen such a rare pair obluidy lovebairds as yerselves! Stell, a cannae creetisize ower
much, havin been in luve mahself, mony lang years sence!" He sighed reflectively, and
Drew noticed a glint of moisture in his eye.
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What happened, Chas?" he asked softly. Did she leave you?" Chas looked up at
him again, with a tear now rolling freely down each cheek. Aye, laddie! Ah suppose ye
could say she did that..but not the way yere thenkin, alas! She died, poor bonnie lass,
]ust after oor fifteenth Wedding annivairsary! !t was her hairt, yell ken - et was naiver
ower strong." He cast his eyes down sadly and passed a trembling hand across his brow.
Then he said: Ahll taill yer this, Andrae. !f she hadnae died, Ah wouldnae be here
wiye today, an thats a bluidy fact, man! We never ventured far frae each othersside,
even when Ah went awa on lecture-tours. She always came with me! Somehoo, ah
couldnae eemagine her comin doon here on such a damn fools errand as thes!" He gave
a short laugh as he imagined what his departed wifes reaction would have been to his
present adventure. Nebbe shes s!III wi me, even noo!"
Drew considered him in silence. He had always assumed that the professor was a
confirmed bachelor. Hed even thought this was probably because he was such a cantan-
kerous old curmudgeon! Now he saw it from a different perspective, and wondered what
the old fellow must have been like whilst his wife was still alive. Chass last remark,
however, reminded him of another duty he owed his companions.
However, this brief moment of quiet was suddenly ended when Errol returned. OK,
you guys!" he sang out breezily, Let's rock and roll!" He grabbed for his bulging
backpack, but Drew laid a gentle restraining hand on his arm. Hang on tick, Errol, theres
something !d like to say, first."
Errol paused and eyed him speculatively. Whats up, Drew?"
Oh, its nothing to get excited about, its. well.its ]ust something ! promised
Num, before ! left. ! dunno how to put this to you blokes, or what your positions are
regarding the sub]ect, but.well.she asked me to PRAY to God before we went into any
real danger! ! mean for all of us - not ]ust myself! What do you reckon? Would you
mind?"
Errol and Chas both stared back in astonishment, then, once the initial revelation
that Drew believed in God had sunk in they both heartily endorsed the idea. Errol
admitted frankly that he had been carefully hiding his own belief from Drew ever since
theyd first met, afraid in case Drew saw it as a sign of weakness. The professor told them
both that he had never as to believe, even after the sudden soul-wrenching loss of his
dear wife, and despite the almost mandatory atheism that Science seemed to demand of
its acolytes, he had remained rigidly true to the inner beliefs that he had held since being
a wee bairn at the village Sunday School class.
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So it was with a vast sense of relief and gladness that the three clasped each others
hands in a small prayer circle and asked the Good Lord to keep them safe from all the
physical and spiritual dangers they might be called upon to face in the coming weeks or
months ahead. They ended up by singing together the same beautiful and haunting song
that had so stirred Drew to tears at his fathers funeral service, Amazing Grace".
They stood there quietly for a few minutes afterwards, still holding hands in silent
communion, little aware of the fact that the astral forms of both Narianne an Hazel had
also participated in their communion with God, the Great Spirit. Nor had they any inkling
of the lurking demonic spirits of ultimate evil that had also witnessed the scene, with
snarling lips and grinding teeth at this great blasphemy against their own lord and master
- the Archfiend of Darkness!
Then the three returned to their final preparations. The long but fine nylon rope
had duly been cut free and now lay in a heap at the base of the shaft, so they separated
it into three lengths of around fifteen hundred feet each. !t was only when Drew came to
try hefting one of these coils that Drew suddenly became aware of the fact that it didnt
weigh anything like as much as hed expected. !t struck him then that the lightness might
be due to a slight lessening in the pull of gravity!
They had discussed the possibility of such an effect one evening with Chas. The
general consensus of their old !nternet discussion group - who had mostly been rebel
science students such as themselves - had been that gravity would diminish after de-
scending below the surface. And that it would continue to do so until they reached the
halfway point though the crustal shell. Drew, being the eternal pragmatist, had refused to
accept this, and had expected that it would be more likely to increase exponentially until
it finally crushed them into complete immobility as it reached its maximum. Now it
seemed, he was being proved wrong. u Ia! demonstrandum1
They ended up halving the lengths to around seven hundred feet or so. The thin
ropes, which were really not much more than light cord, were now much more easily
portable, and when looped around the chest over one shoulder caused little inconve-
nience. They took the precaution of donning their climbing harnesses first, before hump-
ing their backpacks on to their shoulders, and looped the rope over themselves last of all.
But before they left, Drew handed each of them a chained silver crucifix. Put these on,
fellers," he said, theyre the best weapons youll ever possess!" Errol and Chas accepted
them gladly and hung them around their necks.
Their final act was to heave a few large chunks of solidified lava into the entry-
aperture of their erstwhile pied-a-terre to prevent the reptilians from raiding what gear
they had left behind. ID-IID IID -Tna!s aII, /IKs!" said Errol in his creditable
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impersonation of Bugs Bunny, as he thrust the portable radio handset into a pocket on
Drews back-pack, and, whistling O// w g In! !n WII BIu YnI", followed him in
the direction of the far end of the reservoir chamber.
Chas caught up with them presently after turning off the nearby calor-lamp. They
had no idea if theyd ever see them again, but Drew had thought it best not to waste the
gas - ]ust in case! !n the meantime they would let the other further lamp burn whilst
they looked for other possible shafts in the cavern floor that stretched beyond it. As they
went, Chas still felt the elusive air-current fanning his face. Even two miles deeper than
the original gallery, it was no hotter then it had been up there. He was frankly astounded.
There na to be another entrance into the system and one that hadnt passed through any
hot regions. Hed expected them to be sweltering by now, an choking on raw sulfur-
dioxide and carbon-dioxide gas. But, for some incredible reason, I! nan! nappn!
Drew led them first to the fissure-like chasm that the professor had almost tumbled
into. As they walked farther along it, they found that it didnt open up any wider than
around twelve feet or so. Well!" said Drew as he fumbled in one of the pockets of Errols
backpack for a flare, At least if we cant find anything better than this, well have it as an
ace in the hole!" He ripped the top off the small canister, allowed it to reach full blaze,
then dropped it down the fissure. What they saw was astonishing! The cleft ]ust went on
and on downwards, and as the flare fell, its pink glare illuminated a sheer drop of gargan-
tuan proportions. However, unlike the shaft they had previously descended, the walls of
this deep gulf in the rock were stepped and ridged with a series of stone ledges and
outcrops some ]utting several feet out of the cliff-like walls. !t was an awesome yet inviting
prospect.
They leaned out over the edge of the chasm watching what was revealed for at least
twenty seconds, until the flare finally hit a pro]ecting outcrop and went out in a shower of
sparks. Errol took of his helmet and shook the perspiration off his auburn locks. !ts a
definite `No-no for the `chutes, buddy!" he opined to Drew. Wed be snagged and hung
up in nothing flat if we tried a ]ump down there!"
Drew nodded his glum agreement, then he brightened again. Yeah! But itd be an
ideal place to rappel! Heaps of places to take a rest or ad]ust your gear, or, if its a long
drop, to even take a kip! Whaddaya reckon, Erb?" Errol nodded ambivalently, but only
because he wanted to check out the area a little further first. He said as much to Drew.
OK, then!" said Drew, who hated indecision. Well look around the top end first, then, if
therere still no ]umpable shafts, this is the go! OK?"
OK!" said Errol, walking back toward the main chamber. Now lets go see!"
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Chas, however, had observed something the others hadnt, there was no air-current
rising from the deep chasm. However, the flare had still burned brightly enough, so there
was clearly oxygen-rich air down there. Which happily ruled any likelihood of descending
into foul air or poisonous sulfur-dioxide gas.
At the top end of the chasm, as he slowly followed Errol and Drew, Chas again
noticed the place where the rocks had appeared to change from igneous to sedimentary.
This time he was certain. The volcanic igneous rock wall terminated here, and was re-
placed by a light-coloured, stratified sandstone. Now he could see definite signs of wa!I-
IsIn in the rock. This was definitely where the water had entered the great magma
chamber to create that great burst of superheated steam which, in turn, had power-
blasted the chamber and the shaft clear of residual lava!
As he ventured further onward into the sandstone region, he noticed that the air-
current was definitely emanating from this area. !n fact it was now much stronger than
back up the main chamber. This could only mean one thing. There was some sort of
blowhole nearby! He was now utterly consumed with geological curiosity. A hundred
yards further still he noticed that the floor had begun to slope upwaIs! And the air was
blowing almost a gale straight out of a wide tunnellike opening in the rock! !t was being
sucked down by some inexplicable means through cracks and crevices in the sandstone
and was then being drawn through the chamb..
Just then he heard a cry behind him, and he suddenly noticed that he was all alone.
Cnaaas1 came the distant yell. C1. He almost collapsed in relief when he heard
Drews call, but he also was astonished that it seemed so distant.
He turned around to shout back - only to find himself confronted by the same
hideous, tall reptilian whose head he had blown apart only a few hours ago!
The professor stared in horror at the resurrected reptilian hominid which stood
glaring at him balefully in the light of his helmet-lamps. `!ts a bluidy hallucination! !t
cannae be real! he told himself, making to move backwards from the apparition. But it
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was then that he found himself incapable of movement. His feet were rooted to the spot.
A great sense of dread flooded through him then as he realized that the thing had him
held in some sort of terrible thrall. His mind raced within him.
What did it intend to do with him - or ! him? He had to get away from there, fast!
Obviously it was the ghost of the thing hed killed, come back to exact some frightful
revenge upon him. He tried to speak to it, to ask it what it wanted with him, even to
plead with it, but his larynx could only produce a muted croaking sound. And still the
entity stood immobile, before him, staring into his bulging eyes with its own penetrating,
catlike amber eyes, as if searching his mind - his very soul!
!t was then that Chas detected the first signs of movement in the eldritch form that
confronted him, and which showed him that it was a reality and not the product of his
imagination. !t blinked, and a pallid nictitating membrane flickered swiftly across each of
its eyes. !t was then that he felt an icy cold emanation of hatred radiate forth from the
reptilian, which coiled around him like a giant hand of raw freezing power and began to
draw him forward. He suddenly felt his legs begin to move, but not of his own volition,
and as he stepped forward in a zombie-like robotic fashion, toward the creature, it stepped
backwards away from him.
Now it began to address him, but not in any tongue he had ever heard before. !t
was a language of some sort, full of hissing sibilants and harsh gutturals, but most frightful
of all, spoken in a deep, sepulchral tone of voice that boded him no good! As the bestial
monstrosity retreated before him, drawing him along with it, Chas felt great lashes of
searing frigid pain flashing through his body like bolts of ice-cold lightning - and his heart
began to leap and flutter agonizingly within his shuddering breast. The demonic entity
was cursing him to death! And yet in the midst of all this terrifying ordeal, Chas realized
with a faint sense of surprise that he was still able to think rational thoughts within his
mind! Even though the thing still controlled his bodys motive powers, it had not
actually taken over his thought-processes.
From somewhere in the dim recesses of his memory, he recalled an occasion when,
as a young man, he had attended a local theatre which was featuring among its various
turns" a hypnotist. The man had been the talk of the town, for his ability to make the
most august and stuffy of the theatres patrons come up onto the stage and make public
spectacles of themselves - some had bayed like hounds, whilst others had leapt around
the stage gibbering like monkeys. However, when one of Chass friends had virtually
pushed him up on the stage in answer to the hypnotists call for more volunteers, he had
been totally unaffected by his hypnotic suggestions and incantations. The upshot was
that the hypnotist had to admit defeat and told him as he sent him off the stage, that he
was one of the select few who could not be put under".
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The recollection of this incident suddenly filled the professor with a surge of rebel-
lious spiritual power, and he stopped in his tracks, fighting off the psychic force that was
pulling him along. The hellish demon began to thunder out loudly his incomprehensible
commands, and Chas felt the already freezing chill that had surrounded him intensify a
hundredfold, and the very hairs on his head, neck and arms stood upon end. But still he
fought back with every ounce of his will against the monsters power. He forced himself to
remain still, even though every motor-nerve in his limbs seemed by now to be screaming
for him to obey and keep moving. He had no idea how far the creature had brought him
or where it had been taking him to. All he knew was that the whole pantomime had to
s!p IIgn! nI!
As if right on cue, he heard a loud staccato report ring out, off to his right, and all at
once, as if awaking with a start from some hideous nightmare, he found himself suddenly
freed of both the terrible possessing thrall and of the appalling cold. At the same time, as
in a crazy dream, the creature before him seemed to simply sink down and melt away into
the ground. He was ]ust about to turn and run, when a familiar voice bellowed at him not
to move. !t was Andrews voice!
Stand right !nI, Chas! For Gods sake, n! move a bloody musI!" came Drews
urgent call. Then Chas felt a pair of hands grasp his backpack firmly from behind, and he
was dragged backward for several paces. He spun around swiftly, ready to fight for his life
- only to find himself staring straight into Errols pale face!
What the bluidy Heill are ye aboot, ye great loon?" he roared at his ex-student. But
Errol gave him a wan grin, and at the same moment, he was ]oined by Drew, holding a
revolver still smelling of cordite fumes in his great fist.
Thank God we heard the shouting in the nick of time!" gasped Drew, clapping Chas
on the shoulder. That bloody creature had you right on the edge of the crevice!" He
pointed around to the great chasm they had looked into a short while before. The damned
reptile was trying to make you step off the edge of !na!!"
Chas was dumbfounded. !t had all actually happened! He hadnt dreamt it all! Ah
cannae believe it!" he cried. Ah thought it was some sairt o psychic monkey-tricks that
some demonic speerit was playin on me! Some kind o ghostly maismerism or somesuch
noansense, from the speerit o yon thing that Ah killed yesterday!" Then he added:
Weell, Ah fancy that ye feared the bluidy thing off wi yeer peestol, eh, thanks be tae the
Lord!"
No!" said Errol. Drew actually sn! the goddamn thing and it fell down the fissure!
!t wasnt any spirit, it was the IaI MaC), Prof! Looked like the twin brother of the one
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that )u plugged. ! figure there must be a whole tribe of the hellish things lurking around
these parts. Anyhow," he went on," what happened? How did you run across it?"
Chas then told them both what had transpired, how hed found the edge of the
volcanos base, and that the mysterious air-current was apparently blowing or being sucked
out of a water-eroded tunnel in the sandstone that underlay the plateau - and that it was
]ust after hed found this, that the reptilian demon had appeared behind him and, after
taking over his body somehow, had compelled him to walk along after it.
Ah felt ]uist like one of those Zombie craitures yon weetch-doactors create wi their
magic spaills in Haiti!" Chas concluded. Ah haidnae a clue that hed laed me tae the aidge
o yon great crack!"
Drew shook his head in amazement at the way it had all worked out for the best. !
seem to get the impression that were all being led somewhere, fellers! And ! reckon that
whoever it is whose leading us, is looking after us, too! That little escapade went ]ust a tad
too far D)n pure coincidence, in my book!" He eyed them both speculatively. ! guess
that, since we nav been led back to this selfsame spot - by whatever agency or compul-
sion - !nIs mus! be our way down!"
Before they began their descent of the chasm, and whilst Chas assisted Drew in
finding suitable pro]ections around which to loop their climbing-ropes, Errol contacted
Hazel and Narianne by means of the radiophone, and informed them that theyd found a
way to descend considerably farther than they presently were and that from hereon in,
they might possibly drop out of radio-range - however this remained to be seen, since as
long as there was a direct open channel between them and the upper chamber, he per-
sonally could see no reason why they shouldnt be able to communicate for quite a long
distance yet. They would have to wait and see. Drew was right this minute arranging
their descent-ropes with Chass help.
He deliberately omitted any mention of Chass near-fatal encounter with another of
the demonic reptilians, in order to avoid frightening the girls. But, much to his surprise,
Narianne asked him if the professor was over his nasty shock now, and that he had
certainly put up a brave psychic fight against the creatures spiritual attack. Both she and
Hazel had been silent, invisible witnesses to the entire scene!
Whilst this came as a considerable shock to Errol, he was even more surprised when
she went on to tell him that they had also seen two or three tall, white and rather spectral,
humanoid-looking figures hovering close by the professor when he begun to resist the will
of the hadean monster. After the arrival of Drew and himself, they had seen these strange
ghostly interlopers watch on for a few moments longer, and then they had simply disap-
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peared like will-o-the-whisps! She felt sure that they had played some part in bolstering
Chass spiritual morale. Hazel had suggested that they might have been Angels! What
did he think?
Errol didnt know what to think! AngIs?" he said, incredulously. ! dont disbelieve
in them, of course, but what on Earth would they be doing in such a hellish place as !nIs?"
He said hed pass her over to Drew and let him ponder on it, but she asked him not to. !f
Drew was busy, shed leave Errol to tell him about this new development.
However, ]ust at that ]uncture, Drew, who had now completed the task of position-
ing the ropes, came over and took the phone from Errols hand, and having overheard all
of Errols side of the discussion, asked her what these new people had looked like. She
repeated her description, adding that although they hadnt been able to see their faces
very well, theyd both gained the impression that they were trying to help Chas, and that
they seemed to emit an aura of great benevolence toward all three of them. She added
that she was sure that these strange spiritual entities had also noticed Hazel and herself,
but had made no effort to communicate with them. Perhaps they had been too en-
grossed in assisting Chas?
Drew was quite mystified by this, and said hed give it some thought. Then he said
a few private words of endearment to Narianne before asking her to put Hazel on for Errol,
then he bade her a fond adieu, and passed the transceiver handset back to his friend.
Who immediately launched into an intimate lovey-dovey chat with Hazel.
As Drew returned to the edge of the chasm, Chas once again criticized A thes
bluidy romantic noansense" as being counterproductive to their mission. Ah suppose
well hae tae wait yon fellers plaisure, while he aixpresses his hairts desire tae his lady-
luive, before we can stairt oor descaint?"
Drew ]ust grinned and told him not to be such a wet blanket. A couple of moments
later Errol rang off, and returned to his comrades. Well! How about that for a goddamn
surprise, eh?" he asked as he slipped the phone into a pouch on Drews backpack. Sounds
like were not entirely on our wn in this, eh, buddy!"
Then, after fastening the ends of their ropes on to their harnesses, they began the
dangerous business of lowering themselves over the edge of the chasm, working the
other halves of the ropes, laced through their chest-boxes, in an easily controllable hand-
over-hand manner, by which they could halt their descent at any time. This itself wasnt
a particularly hazardous procedure. The main danger lay in the chance of interference
with the ropes up above, where they slid around anchoring rocks, by the reptilians.
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Surprisingly their descent proved to be comparatively easy, and since there were
frequent ledges in what were now the two cliff faces, as well as occasional strong outcrop-
ping pro]ections, they were able to take occasional comfort-breaks on their way down.
After about half an hour, when Drew estimated they had gone down some six hundred
and fifty feet, they had to stand on one of these ledges and loosen the ropes from their
rappelling-racks, pull down the ropes from their first anchor-points and find new anchor
points among the pro]ecting outcrops. Then they were able to continue downwards for
another half-hour or more, before repeating the procedure. By the end of seven or eight
hours of this uneventful descent, Drew reckoned they had reached around nearly seven
and a half thousand feet below their magma chambers floor!
The air was now becoming noticeably thicker and strangely more oxygen-rich, so
they felt no discomfort, if anything, apart from badly-aching shoulders and arms and
severe numbness in their backsides, they felt quite fit. They were amazed that they
hadnt yet encountered any hint of sulphur-dioxide or any great increase in temperature,
such as theyd been led to expect by all the scientific books theyd read on the sub]ect of
descending deep into the Earths crust!
The professor, in particular was frankly astounded by this contradiction of all hed
ever learned - an !augn! - in this connection. He was now beginning to seriously
reconsider his scientific convictions, and the concept of a hollow interior of the planet was
steadily becoming a distinct possibility to him. Not that he was yet ready to admit this
openly to Andrew and Errol. His self-esteem as a scholar still tended to cloud the evi-
dence of his own senses!
That night" - for they had learned how to determine night" from day" by their
D)-IKs, in the absence of any external, visual indicator - they slept comfortably upon
a wide ledge, safe in the knowledge that, should they inadvertently roll off it during their
slumber, their ropes would prevent them falling. Nothing came to disturb them, nor were
their minds haunted by any fantastic nightmares, so when Drew awoke some eight hours
later, according to his wristwatch, he was totally astonished at having en]oyed such a long
and refreshing sleep. He then switched on his helmet-lamps and opened up his back-
pack. From it he drew out a little luxury hed kept concealed therein - a small aluminum
container of calor-gas attached to a light metal gas-ring. He also produced his billy-can
which was packed with tea-bags, sweeteners, and a cigarette-lighter, and one of his bottles
of water.
By the time his companions had been awakened by his stirring around, they found
themselves being handed an enamel mug of scalding hot black tea, and a survival ration
pack apiece! !t was a wonderful start to the day" - if such a name could be applied
sensibly to the inky depths of a vastly deep, subterranean chasm!
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What goddamn time is it?" asked Errol, clutching his mug of hot tea and shaking his
head free of the drowsy mussiness of sleep.
Drew gave him an astonished look. "What the hell does it matter?" he asked. Were
in the TwIIIgn!-Zn now, mate! `Day and night and `time mean absolutely zilch down
here!"
Och! Ah wouldnae say that, laddie!" said Chas, rummaging in his bag for his diary.
Ahm keepin a record of every day that passes, and the vII thats sufficient unto et!" Ah
believe that its noo the fefth day on this expedeetion, wi Goad knows hoo many more tae
follow!" then he added softly. An Ah doant thenk itd dae us any hairm tae say a wee
prayer tae ask the Lord tae gei us an!nI guid one, either!"
His companions agreed readily with this sentiment, and after their meal was ended,
they again held hands whilst Chas himself now offered up a prayer for their protection and
safe deliverance for the day ahead and those that would follow from all hurt and harm, to
which the three added a heartfelt Amen".
Before starting the days descent, drew decided to try out their radio-link, not at all
certain of any result from this amazing depth. But surprisingly, he was delighted to hear
Nariannes voice quite well if rather faintly over the handset. She was astonished that
they had already descended so far. She had been awake since their last conversation but
was ]ust about to awaken Hazel and get some well-earned rest herself. However, Drew
wanted to tell her something fairly serious. Look, love," he said, ! want you to listen to
me, carefully. Now were getting so far away, ! think that the next stop might be too deep
to make contact. !n which case thatll mean your watch up top will be over. No point you
hanging around, Narianne as we might be gone for months - a year or more even! So,
if ! cant make contact in another seven hours or so, ! want you and Hazel to call Bob to
come and collect you both - and Jimmy, of course, and take you back to Glengarry."
Narianne had been dreading this moment, but she was only to sensitive to the fact
that whatever happened to the trio below, they were beyond all help from up top now.
And at least she and Hazel would still be able to visit them from time to time, even if only
on the astral plane. !t mattered not at all that they would be physically some hundreds of
miles south of the volcano. There were no bounds of distance or time in the spiritual
world. At least they would be able to mark their progress at regular intervals, or if they
chose they could sleep in shifts, so that one of them was constantly on hand to watch over
them.
She answered Drew. very well, my love, so it will have to be. But remember that
one of us will be watching you always - and unless ! miss my guess, there will be those
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!nIs watching out for your wellbeing, too! But whatever happens ! want you to know
that ! will love you forever, darling, ]ust as Hazel loves Errol! Let that thought burn in the
forefront of your mind at all times, and ! know that youll win though. God be with you,
Drew, and with you all!" Drew was nearly in tears by this time, but he turned his back on
his comrades, so they wouldnt see his emotional state, and softly swore his own undying
love to Narianne. Then she whispered a last farewell and broke the contact.
Errol looked at him beseechingly as he turned around again, and Drew had to tell
him that Hazel was asleep - but that she was probably watching over him right there as
they spoke. Well see if we can make contact again later, Errol, and if so, its all yours,
mate! At least Narianne told me how deeply Hazel feels about you!" Errol smiled at this
and nodded his thanks, then he turned back to the task at hand. Chas said nothing, but
Drew knew that he felt keenly for them both.
Now, after Drew had restowed his backpack, they were ready to continue their
descent. They began by hauling down the rappelling lines and looping them over new
pro]ections of smooth rock, then once more they tied themselves on and began lowering
themselves down the seemingly bottomless stygian rift. Now as they went they con-
versed with each other. The work of lowering oneself in this manner requiring no great
expenditure of physical effort. So they were free to discuss a number of matters that had
been crowding their minds, but which they had previously not cared to mention. The
close camaraderie that had sprung up between them during the events of the past three
or four days, helped them feel much more free to unburden their minds of earlier misgiv-
ings.
Dye think, lads," asked the professor, as they steadily descended down into the
blackness, that if we get sae far doon as this GIavI!) FII ye mentioned tae me a while
back, that well be able tae croass !nIugn it? Ets be puzzlin me sorely aiver since ye first
maintioned it! Ahve been eemaginin us being haild fast there, toatally unable tae move
any fairther ahead, because of the grevity on the other side pushin us back doon! Whats
yere ain view on yon wee conundrum?"
This was a problem that had puzzled both Drew and Errol too, as well as hundreds
of other Hollow Earth scientific speculators. Drew told Chas of all the different scenarios
that had been propounded in this connection. Some had worried about the same thing
that Chas had raised. Others had envisioned that this Gravity Floor, which they assumed
must run midway through the 800 to 1000 miles thickness of the Earths planetary crustal
shell would steadily fade to nothing as it was approached, so that at the Zero Point of
gravitational interface, they would float as freely as astronauts in space. They believed
that the two opposing halves of the gravity field would cancel each other out. Thus all an
explorer would simply be able to pull himself along through this zone of weightlessness by
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using handholds on the rock walls, until the gravity began to make itself felt more and
more again he headed upwards" toward the inner surface.
Still others again were concerned that the pull of gravity would simply continue to
increase, and that the travelers weight would become so great at the Gravity Floor" that
he would be crushed flat against it by his own vastly-increased mass! This latter scenario
seemed, at first sight, to be by far the most logical. Why snuI the pull of gravity cease
at the Earths surface?
However," put in Errol, you have to take the effects of n!II/ugaI /I into ac-
count into this equation. !td be like an ant trying to get down a nail-hole in the tread of
the tyre of a ]acked-up, but rapidly-rotating truck wheel! Or sm goddamn thing IIK
!na!, anyhow!" he added, feeling mildly irritated by Drews laughter at his curious verbal
illustration.
Although they werent able to solve anything concretely during these debates, which
left Chass head spinning with scientific bewilderment, at least it passed on the time for
them very nicely. By the time Drew called another days descent to a halt, their ]aws
ached considerably more than their shoulders and arms!
As they settled upon another even wider ledge, and began to unpack some victuals
for an evening meal, Drew was able to announce that, according to his reckoning of
rope-changes en route, they had descended a further Ign! an a naI/ !nusan feet, give
or take a yard or two either way! This placed them at ]ust over three miles beneath the
last chamber they had left, making it a total of around five and a half miles below the
outer surface of the plateau! Only another seven hundred and ninety five thousand
miles left and well be home and hosed!" Drew grinned at his companions. ! reckon if we
can keep this up, fellers, well be popping up inside in around eighteen months time!"
However, instead of laughing, this news was received in a stony silence by his friends.
They had all suddenly reached the same conclusion. At this rate of one and a half miles
or so per day, even given such an easy descent as this, they would take at least a year and
a half to reach the other side, but probably far more than that since half their ]ourney
would be occupied in IImDIng upwaI instead of rappelling down. That would surely be
/aI slower. This sudden realization of their true situation was more than ]ust a great
disappointment to them all, it was a great nammI-DIw to their morale, especially when
one imagined how terribly much longer it would take to struggle back up the other, inner
half of the crust - agaIns! the pull of gravity!
The sheer enormity of the undertaking that they now faced simply didnt bear
thinking about, so, after a great deal of soul-searching but fruitless discussion, they de-
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cided to sleep on it, and try to think a little more ob]ectively about it in the morning. Drew
lay awake for hours after the others had finally dozed off, his mind whirling madly with
disastrous, gloomy thoughts.
The whole bloody show appeared to be crumbling around his ears, and it was all
due to nIs wn crass imbecility and stubborn bloody arrogance! They would run out of
supplies long before they reached even the halfway point! Then what would they live on?
Hope? He wondered if they might able to clamber back up the three miles theyd come
so far.
After all even that was n man /a!! Especially under a bloody vIan! The
professor could attest to the veracity of their descent, and the news of it being cool below
instead of a raging inferno of white hot magma, would stand geology upon its ear! Theyd
have to rewrite all the geology and earth-science textbooks even on what theyd already
discovered!
Yes! YES! They uI pull out now and s!III be hailed as heroes! Nobody outside
the family knew that they had really set out to discover the !nner Earth, so nobody need
ever know! !t all made perfect sense. Hed call Narianne right away, and tell her that
they were coming back.
!t was then that he finally fell asleep. But instead of his usual deep, dreamless
sleep, Drews slumber this time was filled with both nightmares and dreams of peace and
light and beauty. He dreamed that they were being assailed in the stygian blackness of
the chasm by demonic creatures with wings who tore at them viciously, striving to fling
them all headlong down the bottomless abyss, worst of all Narianne and Hazel were also
there upon the ledge with them! Their backpacks were seized and flung away into the
inky depths and their clothes were torn to shreds. But still the horde of their attackers
continued to swell as they fought and punched, kicked and tore at their enemies with their
bare hands and feet, seizing their scaly limbs and breaking them or smashing in their foul
faces with torn and bleeding knuckles. The battle seemed to last forever.and they were
weakening rapidly under the sheer savagery of the massive onslaught..all five of them
were bleeding profusely, and.
Suddenly there came a great hiatus in the bloodshed and carnage The evil entities
that a moment ago were screeching wildly at the imminent prospect of victory and a feast
of human flesh, then suddenly it all stopped, and the fiends withdrew upwards en masse,
howling in rage and fear.
The next thing Drews dream vision revealed was a group of angelic beings, shining
as if lighted from within by a brilliant blue-white effulgence, hovering before them with
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outstretched, shielding arms! However, unlike Drews own ingrained concept of angels,
as he had seen depicted in religious paintings and illustrations, these possessed no wings.
They simply hovered there above the black gulf emitting powerful radiative waves of
peace, healing and love directly into their bodies, minds and souls. !t was absolutely
wonderful! None of them had ever experienced any sensation like it! And as they turned
to look at each other they found that all their wounds were vanishing before their eyes,
and the myriad bruises and bloodstains were being miraculously cleansed from their skin
and clothing. Even their clothing itself was being invisibly repaired! Then the angelic
beings stretched forth their hands to take their human hands and.. and..
Drew suddenly awoke with a great start, to find Errol shaking him by the shoulder,
the reflected light of his helmet lamps upon the rock behind him illuminating his familiar
features. Hey! Hey!" he said brightly. Wakey Wakey, old buddy! Or do you mebbe fancy
a lie-in this fine sunny morning?" Drew struggled up to a sitting position and saw Chas
leaning across to hand him a mug of hot tea.
God!" he said, blinking his eyes owlishly and rubbing them with his knuckles, then
gratefully grasping the proffered mug. Whats the blooming !Im?"
Now, now, buddy!" said Errol still grinning. Who was it who said only yesterday
told m that !Im mans aDsIu!I) zIIn" to us down here? !t was you - you dumb
halfwit! Anyhow, ! ]ust thought youd like to know that ! ]ust managed to contact Hazel
- but nI) )us!, mark you - on the handset, and theyve decided to take your advice, and
are going to be lifted out today by Nike and Bob. But were not to worry, theyll still keep
an eye on us on the astral plane - even from Glengarry! Oh, yeah, and she said to tell you
that Joan and Bob send you and us all their love, and that shes still praying for us! So
theres the latest News Up-Date", buddy!"
Well, !m bloody glad Narianne saw sense and did as ! asked her," said Drew. !
had visions of them both s!III sitting there waiting for us eighteen bloody months from
now!"
Here Chas put in his two-cents worth. Andrae, mah boy, Ahve been haeing a wee
think aboot a that, an Ahve a feeling this chasm is widenin oot the fairther we gae doon
it! So Ah teisted it for masailf airlier, like thes! and, suiting the action to the word, the
professor picked up a fist-size rock and flung it hard across the cleft.
Drew was quite surprised to notice an appreciably time-interval between the throw
and the impact of the stone against the opposite wall. Chas! ! think you might ]ust be
bloody IIgn!, old son! G n )u, ma!!" He felt around for his helmet, switched on the
headlamps and then groped around in his backpack pouch for a couple of the small flare-
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canisters. Then, standing up, near to the edge of the shelf they were camped upon, he
cried Flare!" so that the others could shut their eyes, then ignited the flare. As it blos-
somed forth into pink, sizzling flame, Drew tossed it out over the edge and, after a swift
glance at the opposite wall, he turned his gaze downward, as also did his two companions.
What the pink brilliance of the flare revealed quite took their breath away. The gulf
- for such it had truly become - instead of diminishing rapidly down to a narrow slit, as
they had all expected such a volcanic fissure to do, did the exact opposite. !t widened out
into a deep gorge, with still no floor in sight! There were still ]utting pro]ections and
ledges along its sides, but the vertical centre was now easily a sixty feet wide immediately
below their present position, but it had widened to well over a hundred or more, as far as
they could ]udge before the still-falling flare finally twinkled out.
!t was truly unbelievable that so tremendous a canyon could exist at such a depth.
The whole body of geological and geophysical scientific belief cried out against it - yet
!nI it was! And even the professor could not argue with the evidence of his own eyes.
Nan! Did ye ever see such a sight!" he almost shrieked in his fervour at their
discovery. This will completely change the ideas o geopheesics for all time - if ainly Ah
can conveence yon dusty ould eediots sittin back sae pompously in their infinite wisdom
an know-all claiverness back at the Univairsity!"
Both Drew and Errol smiled furiously to themselves at this last statement. Chas
himself had been far and away the dustiest of all the know-all pompous old idiots" theyd
ever known! However, they both had to concede that hed certainly changed his tune
over the past few days.
Drew was the first to consider this new development with regard to their method of
progress downwards. ! guess its time for us to dig out the parachutes again, you blokes!
But this time ! think were going to have to take our backpacks with us and our ropes too.
We dont know where we might need them again. Any thoughts on that, Errol?"
Errol agreed that the chutes would be fine given the wide open space theyd ]ust
seen. As for the backpacks," he added, we can hang èm down below our feet, Drew,
like the military do, and the ropes can be slung around them. ! dont see any problems -
except for the air-density down here. !t will certainly slow us down a fair bit compared to
the last time we used them, but at least we wont need to keep stopping to re-anchor the
ropes. ! suggest that we each carry a spare flare so that when we want to land for a
break, we light one of èm, pick out a wide enough ledge, then steer our `chutes in toward
it, and hope to hell the flare lasts long enough for us to land! We gotta land sometime,
guys!" he laughed, Otherwise how do we get to eat, sleep or go take a leak or a crap?
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Waddaya reckon, you guys?"
Drew and Chas agreed entirely, and they were soon busily engaged in digging into
their backpacks again for the skydiving parachute packs. As they sorted out their gear,
Drew suggested that they should pocket their revolvers, as well as some spare ammo, as
well as some candy bars and a bottle of water apiece. Fortunately they all wore capacious
but lightweight ex-military surplus combat ]ackets with plenty of pocket-room, so these
items were not a ma]or problem.
Then they repacked their big packs and, after attending to their Calls of Nature
(wnIn na ! D /I aIng smwna!}, they donning their chute-harnesses and at-
tached the backpacks, around which their climbing ropes were bound, to the central
crotch-rings with short lengths of rope. By this time they were beginning to feel - an
IK - like trussed fowls, with all the harness-gear strapped about them. Errol said he
wished hed brought along a flash-camera to record their appearance for posterity!
What! You mean you bloody OTOAT?" cried Drew in mock-anger. Now how the
hell are we going to photograph the !nner Earth when we get there, mate?" Then, seeing
Errols startled face in his headlamps, he chuckled. Only kidding, you silly sod! ! feel
certain that the !nner Earth folk will have something far more technologically advanced
than our primitive cameras!"
!t was here that Chas cleared his throat meaningfully. Ah believe ets time for a wee
word wi the Almighty, laddies." he said, looking up at them both solemnly. Then they all
bowed their heads and followed him in prayer. Drew, reflecting upon the terrible night-
mare that was still burned into his mind, strove to put every ounce of fervour into his
words. Somehow, he felt that they might well need all the help they could get in the
coming days of trial that lay ahead.
Ten minutes later, with their backpacks still swinging lightly in pendulum-fashion
beneath their feet, they were all drifting gently down side by side into the fearsome inky
blackness of the bottomless pit.
* * *
Their descent continued in silence for some time, as each of them floated down-
wards, wrapped in his own private thoughts.
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Chas, having little to look forward to for what was left of his humdrum University
existence, was living entirely for the moment. This was the ultimate and crowning
adventure of his life, so he ]ust hoped that he might survive to see its final completion.
Thus far since the death of his dear wife, his life had been lived largely at second-hand,
most of his field-work" in geology being done from the comfort and safety of his study
armchair, via the medium of various magazines and periodicals to which he subscribed.
Exciting ]ournals in which he had avidly read and mentally shared the adventures
and discoveries of geological adventurers, such as volcanologists, speleologists, and moun-
taineers. Oh, how hed wished that he could have ]oined them in their travels to the
farthest-flung corners of the globe! And nw, he reflected, how he wished that !n) could
be nI wI!n nIm and these two wonderfully bold and fearless young fellows, whom he
had helped to mould, right now! He cared little what might befall him on this adventure.
!f it were to be Death, then he trusted that it might be mercifully swift, if Life, then Heaven
permit him to return home to his beloved Scotland with proof to spare of his discoveries
and adventures! What more could any red-blooded Scotsman desire?
He glanced across at Errol, his helmet-lamps falling upon his handsome, square-
]awed features, now solemnly still, as the young American swung gently, wrapped deeply
in his own thoughts. He decided to leave him to his reflections
Errol himself was pondering his past and his future. The present was in limbo as far
as he was concerned. !f and when they reached their Holy Grail, hed sit up and take
notice, but this never-ending descent was something he wanted to be done with ASAP.
He was a guy who lived for life and adventure, the greater the risk the bigger the rush".
He often wished he could take all this Hollow Earth quest as seriously as Drew. But he was
really only along for the ride. !f it all turned out to be ]ust so much garbage, well, so what?
Hed still have - how did it go in that goddamn Star Trek" intro? BII) gn wnI n
man na gn D/I7 Hey! Correction, buddy! .wnI n ON na gn D/I1
Plus, hed hopefully be taking back his KIwI DII, too! He only hoped that shed stick
around and wait for him - eighteen months was a long time between drinks! However,
he wasnt the only love-smitten kid on the block! Drew also had someone to come back
to. Nice girl, Narianne, if you liked the quiet, mysterious type! And she was certainly a
looker!
But the main thing was that she and Drew were crazy about each other, and he
wished them every happiness in the whole wide world. And he knew theyd be really
great together. They were both pretty intense people, though Drew could be a helluva
rough diamond when he felt like it! He still had the scars to prove it! Hed always struck
him as a kinda cross between Clint Eastwood and John Wayne, but with plenty of brains in
spite of his funny way of talking! He hoped theyd find the !nner Earth, and that it was all
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itd been cracked up to be by his own fellow countrymen who claimed to have been there
- if only for Drews sake. And hed get to share the glory of finding it, himself, too! Gee!
And speaking of Glory" - if only hed remembered to bring Old Glory along with him in his
kit! !t would really be something else to plant the Stars and Stripes" in the !nner Earth
for dear old Uncle Sam! Ww1
Errol suddenly realized hed hollered the goddamn word out loud. He turned his
head and stole a glance at his buddy to see if hed heard him.
But Drew was light-years away in the universe of the mind. He had been thinking
hard about a multiplicity of things - not least of all his two friends. !f all this turned out
badly for them, hed never forgive himself. !f he hadnt been such an urging bastard, they
wouldnt be here now falling downward into God knows what sort of a desperate bloody
hellhole! For he was under no illusions that they had seen the last of their enemies! He
could feel it in his water! The bloody things were probably hot on their trail right now! He
was also worried about the dream or was it a nightmare - bit of both, he decided. Could
it have been some sort of precognitive thing? He only wished he could still call up
Narianne and ask her.
Yair! And that was another strange part of the nightmare thing! She and Hazel had
somehow followed them down here and been caught up in the whole bloody horrendous
schemozzle! No! he decided, it mus! have ]ust been a bloody stupid dream - OnI) !nIs
an n!nIng mI - as old Edgar Allan had said in Tn Pavn. Raven bloody ma, more
like!
But for the moment, his greatest worry was their supply situation. The ration packs
were holding up fine at the moment, and would last them many days yet. They had cut
themselves down voluntarily to one a day, since they were in no way using up two thou-
sand calories, ]ust dangling beneath parachutes! The main things of concern now were
batteries for their headlamps and torches, they were taking quite a hiding being turned
on for ten or twelve hours at a stretch. Naybe if they took it in turns to leave their
helmet-lights off? Unless they were attacked - of course! Really, only one man need
keep his lights on whilst they were descending like this. Theyd need them all when they
tried a ledge landing, but in between - it was worth a bloody try anyhow. !f they could
cut down their use from three a day to only one, itd ..
PLOPl PLOP-PLOPl The sudden plopping sounds aroused all three of them from
their introspective maunderings. They sounded for all the world like heavy drops of rain
falling from miles above and splattering upon their canopies.
You hear that, Errol?" Drew called. What the hell can that be?"
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Errols voice rang back from nearby. Cant be a goddamn thunderstorm, down
here, can it? Naybe somebodys taking a leak up-top right into the chasm! Or perhaps it
might be Da!s crapping on us!"
PLOP! PLOP!
There they go again," laughed Errol. Yep! Thats what itll be, pal, goddamn aIs!
Theyll do it on you every time, ! recall Dad once taking me to.."
! dont think so, mate!" interrupted Drew hurriedly. We havent seen any bloody
bats since right up in the first gallery! !ts way too far down for èm! What Is of any
IaIgIsn sIz have we met !na! /IIs, since we came down the shaft! H)?"
Suddenly Errol and Chas understood what Drew was saying.
Oh, God, NO!" Errol cried in horror. You dont mean you think its the goddamn
repI1I1ans, buddy? Tell me you n!!"
Sorry, old mate, but who the hell else uI it be?" said Drew, in gloomy tones.
They must have been following us ever since they twigged where wed gone! They must
be gliding around above us right now, Errol! The only reason we never noticed it before
was because we were always against the chasm walls! They must `poop on the wing,
mate, and its mIss us up till now!"
Suddenly Chas yelled out loudly. Gerroff, ye felthy bluidy swine! GERROOT W!YE!
Drew! One o yon bluidy dragon things ]uist bruished against me! Ah saw et in mah
lamps! Ah dinna care ower much for thes state o affairs!"
Drew had a sudden and quite literal flash of inspiration. He groped in his pocket and
felt for a small cylinder. He pulled it out and yelled FIARE!" then he ripped the top off it
and held it out in his hand away from his body.
The sudden burst of blinding pink light and smoke had the desired effect. There was
a loud, terrified shrieking sound above them, followed by a flurry of PLOPS upon their
canopies, and the shrieks rapidly faded overhead as the creatures flapped up and away
through the dense air. Neantime Drews sharp eyes had been flashing around the walls
of the great gulf . Over to their lower left he spied a wide outcropping ledge. Down to
the left! A big ledge!" he yelled. Go 1or 1I1 The others spotted it ]ust as the flare began
to die in Drews hand. He swiftly groped for his pocket torch, in which, thankfully hed ]ust
changed the batteries that very morning.
Clenching the small but powerful torch between his teeth, he reached up an pulled
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on the steering handles that ad]usted the airflow around the canopy by means of cords
attached to either side. He found it extremely hard to focus the torch-beam by turning his
head this way and that, but he finally managed to lock fairly well on to the target platform
of olivine rock, and by gentle pulls on the guide-lines, he steered his canopy towards it.
Suddenly, he felt his backpack land on it with a dull thump, then he came directly
down upon it himself, letting the air out of the canopy as he did so. He quickly scrambled
to gather in his collapsing parachute, then turned to see how his friends were doing.
Errol was right behind him, but Chas was still higher up and toward the centre of
the chasm. He was having great difficulty controlling his chute, and drew realized that
this was the one thing he nan! taught Chas to manage during the lessons in base-
]umping back at the Glengarry outcrop!
However, Errol, who now had his own hand-torch out, was equal to talking Chas
down to a landing. He shone is torch up at the professors canopy, taking care not to
dazzle him with its beam, and gave Chas unhurried, calm directions on how to manage
the steering-handles. Chas was a little heavy-handed at first, but under Errols easy
guidance he soon got the hang of it. and began to glide towards their platform of rock,
luckily, the density of the air held him high enough and for long enough to make it across
to their side, but even at the end, as he swung in towards them, it was still a very close-
run thing.
His backpack missed the ledge, and struck the under-hang of the rock ]ust below it,
but Drew made a wild lunge with his extended arm and managed to grab Chas by the leg
as he swung past, following his backpack. A gargantuan struggle then ensued in which
both Errol and Drew finally succeeded in hauling the professor on to the ledge, and his
backpack, which had become somewhat wedged under the outcrop, was soon hauled up
after him. Then the three of them ]ust fell back exhausted against their backpacks
among the tangled billows of nylon fabric and cord.
Drew was eventually the first to speak. Bloody Hell!" he gasped, aching all over
from the enormous struggle. Theres my two bloody thousand calories gone up in bloody
sweat, all in one hit!" Chas and Errol ]ust lay back weakly, trying to laugh and gasp at the
same time.
After a minute or two, the professor was finally able to gasp out his sincere thanks to
them both for saving his life. As they waved away his thanks, he added that hed had
enough of parachutes for a wee while, and would they mind if he ]ust waIK the rest of
the way? This was ]ust the sort of spirited remark that they needed to boost their
dwindling morale, and the three soon recovered their strength and their nerve. Chas had
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taken much more of a beating in the struggle than he cared to let on to his comrades, so
he laid back quietly, and within seconds the older professor was snoring gently, much to
the relief of his fitter and considerably younger ex-pupils.
Poor old codger!" said Drew, pulling the edges of Chass canopy up over him like a
blanket. ! guess were going to have to keep an eye on him, mate! Hes got a lot to face
yet before were done. Do you reckon the poor old buggerll make it, Errol? Fair dinkum?
! blame myself for inviting him on such a bloody fools errand as this is turning into! !ll
never forgive myself if he carks it on us, mate!"
But Errol wouldnt listen to such defeatist talk. Oh, come on, Drew! You know as
well as ! do that Chas knew the risks from Da) On. To him, this is the adventure of a
lifetime, and about the greatest holiday he could ever have had! He could ]ust as easily
have keeled over sitting quietly at his desk in the University, as with us, buddy! But !ll bet
my bottom dollar ! can guess which way hed rather go! Dying in a blaze of glory six or
eight miles underground, beats the old study-desk heart-attack hands down anytime!"
Drew sighed heavily. Yair, ! guess you might be right about that, mate!" then he
looked over at Errol, leaning back in the torchlight. How far do you reckon we came
today, Errol according to my watch wed been floating down for about six hours or so
before those bastards tried to attack us, and !m sure we must have made better descent-
time than with the continual stop-start" business on the rappels We must have at least
uDI up on the time, mate! ! mean, up top we got down a two-mile shaft in around
twenty-five minutes, so at that rate, if weve been dropping for six hours or so, we must
have descended a! Ias! twelve times that! Dont you reckon? !f so, thats IwenIy-1our
Ioody m1Ies!"
Errol wasnt quite so sure. You forgot to factor in the denser air down here, Drew
- and the lower gravity! For myself, !d figure that around a naI1 of that would be
closer to the mark!"
But Drew had the answer to that. Yes, but you forgot to factor in the DaKpaKs
an !n Ips! They would have cancelled out the air-density and the lower gravity,
mate! !ll stick with my twenty-four miles - PLUS the original five before that! How
does IwenIy-n1ne ! In1rIy m1Ies grab you, cobber?"
Errol gave up. He might as well go along with Drew, he reasoned to himself. !t was
all basically guesswork, anyhow. Night as well look on the positive side!
OK, Drew!" he grinned finally. You wn m! TnII!) mIIs I! Is! Now all we have to
worry about is, will this goddamn chasm take us down another twenty-five or thirty miles
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tomorrow? !f we can only hold those reptilians off next time as easily as we did today, we
oughta be able to do it standing on our ear! `Specially if you n! sIp In tomorrow like
you did this morning!"
Yair! And always providing that Cnas feels up to it tomorrow!" said Drew, soberly.
He was pretty well stuffed back there, Errol. We can only hope and pray that he wakes up
feeling fine and raring to go in the morning. !ts all in Gods hands, mate - well ]ust have
to wait and see! Anyhow, lets get some kip uIsIvs now, or well aII oversleep tomor-
row!" He clicked off his helmet lamps, and with a mumbled Gnight" he turned on his
side and fell asleep almost immediately. Errol wasnt far behind him, although he did
worry a little about them being attacked in their sleep. But that would have to be faced I/
an wnn it happened. !n the meantime, he was really too tired to care. Then he too fell
fast asleep.
But Errols slumber wasnt a dreamless one. He dreamt that he awoke and sat up to
find several white gleaming figures surrounded them, but them were not standing on the
ledge so much as hovering in the empty void a few feet away from its edge! He stared at
them, but he noticed that instead of looking down at them, they were all facing outwards
into the blackness of the pit. He tried to study the shimmering figures of light, but their
dazzling brightness partially concealed their faces and the contours of their bodies. All he
could be certain of was that they appeared to be humans, but of a much greater stature
than himself or Drew.
They stood with their arms extended sideways and with their fingertips touching, as
if to protect himself and his friends. He felt a beautiful sense of well-being and calmness
pervading his body and even his mind. He struggled to sit up with the intention of
addressing them, but as he stirred, one of their group who was closest to his feet, turned
halfway around toward him, presenting a serenely handsome and gently smiling face, and
waved his outstretched hand across his body. At once Errol felt a wave of utter peace and
warmth surge through him and he fell back against his backpack in a deep tranquil slum-
ber.
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The next thing Errol knew was the feeling of being gently shaken into wakefulness
by Drew. Nw whose the z) s, mate?" Drew grinned. !ts all right, Errol, you
havent overslept. Just thought that seeing as how Chas and ! have been lying here
yacking for the past half-hour, we might as well get an early start!"
Errol quickly scrambled up from his canopy bed, put on his helmet, switched on his
lamps and set his gear in order, then he felt a nudge from Chas who had a mug of hot tea
in his outstretched hand. Here ye go, mah wee Yankee laddie! Get this doon yer gullet,
and let et warm the cockles of yer hairt!" Errol thanked the professor profusely. He also
noticed that Chas looked a thousand percent better than he had last night! He had to
laugh to himself how they had fallen into this habit of talking about a) and nIgn! and
mInIng and vnIng when they were continually surrounded now by stygian gloom!
He noticed too, that he felt totally rested and in fine fettle.
!t was then that he recalled his curiously pleasant dream. As they sat together
eating their daily ration pack, he decided to risk being mocked and tell the others of it.
Strangely enough, no one mocked him or told him it was ]ust a dream. !nstead, his
revelation stirred Drews own subconscious memory and he remembered his own night-
mare-dream of the previous night, so he told that to Errol and Chas. They were totally
astonished that their descriptions of the appearance and actions of the angelic-looking
beings matched perfectly.
Looks like we must either be a pair of telepaths between ourselves or else it was
something fair dinkum that we both a!uaII) saw!" said Drew, with more than a touch of
awe in his voice. you know, you fellers, !m beginning to feel nvIn that Num was
a IIgn!, and that God nas set his Angels to watch over us!"
Ahm sure that yer absolutely correct in what yo say, Andrae, mah mannie" said
Chas. Ahve seen the same identeecal fellers, mahsailf, for the past /uI neets noo!"
They all stared at each other in amazement. !f they had all seen the same strange
manifestations, there had to be some truth to it all. They wI IaII) an !IuI) being
guarded by some sort of angelic beings! He said as much to his colleagues.
! reckon we have no choice Du! to believe in God, Christ, and the holy angels,
fellers! And that means if we believe in such spiritual beings as angels and that theyre
under Gods command, we also nav to believe in their ppsI! numDIs who are com-
manded by Satan - the demons! !f ! remember my Bible lessons rightly from school and
from Num, then Satan first appeared to Eve as a Ip!IIIan n!I!), who was loosely trans-
lated by the old-timers from the Hebrew, as being a serpent! So weve always imagined
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Satan in the Eden story as being a sort of talking snake slithering around the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil! But what if Satan, who was a spIII! had by then taken on the
/IsnI) guise of a repI1I1an nom1n1d?"
Aye!" said Chas, suddenly, And pairhaps he was something oa saIamander anall!
Have ye no read in the Guid Book that yon was twice taunted by the prophets aboot his
doonfall? Hang oan a wee meenute, laddies, whilst a find mah wee Bible!" As Chas
groped in his backpack, Errol and Drew exchanged astonished glances. The dear old guy
was full of surprises. Theyd never considered Chas as such a religious man that hed
carry a copy of the Bible around with him! But neither had they ever thought !n) one
day seriously discuss the existence of holy angels of God, either! Life was certainly full of
some pretty staggering surprises. Then, with a little cry of triumph, the professor with-
drew his little dog-eared pocket Bible from the depths of his pack. He then quickly
thumbed through the pages, and found the two sections he had referred to. One was in
!saiah, chapter 1+. He read it out to them in his broad Lowland Scots brogue.
Hoo airt thou fallen froam Heaven, o Lucifer, son o the morning? How airt thou cut
doon tae the groond, wha ded weaken the nations! For thou hast said, Ah wull ascend
intae Haeven, Ah wull exault mah throone aboove the stars o God: Ah wull set also upon
the mount o the congregation en the sides o the noarth: Ah wull ascend aboove the
heights o the cloods, An wuII D IIK !n ms! HIgn." Yet, shalt thou be brought doon
tae HIII - !a !n sIs !n PI!!"
Chas looked up at his audience of two, his eyes glittering with fervour. Noo dae ye
see what Ahm driving at?" he asked. But gie mah yer patience for a couple o meenuts
more, while a read ye the coamplimaintary words frae !saiah, chaipter tweity-eight." Then
he began to read again from another part of his Bible.
Thus saith the Laird Goad. Thou sealest up the sum, fuill oweesdom, an pairfect
in beauty. Thou haist been In n, !n gaIIn Ga, every praecious stoone was thy
coovering, the sardius, topaiz, ond the diamoand, the beryl, the onyx, ond the ]aispair, the
sappheere, the emerald, ond the cairboncle, ond goald..Thou airt the anointed cheerub
that coavereth, ond Ah hae set thee sae: thou was upan !n nI) mn!aIn Ga, thou
haist walked up an doon in !n maIs! !n s!ns /II. Dae ye see yet what Ahm
driven at, lads?" said he to his listeners, who were indeed now beginning to see very well.
Then he went on, abbreviating wherever he could, so as not to bore his listeners too
much:
Thou was pairfect in thy ways frae the day that thou wast created - tell nIquI!)
was foond in thee..Thou haist snn: therefore Ah weel caist thee as profane !
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!n mn!aIn Ga: ond Ah weel s!I) !n, o cooverin cheerub, /Ia !n ms!
!n s!ns /II. Thine hairt was leifted up because o thy beauty, thou haist corrupted
thy weesdom by reason of thy brightnaess, Ah weel caist thee tae the groond, Ah weel lay
thee befoor kengs, that they may behold thee. Thou haist defiled thy sanctuary by the
multitude o thine eneequities.." ..An sae forth an sae oan!" Chas said concluding his
quotes. Then he looked at his two friends, What dye make oall that, then?" he asked
them.
! understand that these prophets were sort of speaking Gods words to Lucifer, but
why didnt He tell him directly Himself?" said Drew. Or were the prophets simply kind of
repeating what God had told Satan, for the peoples benefit?"
Chass face literally beamed. Thats xaI!I) IIaI!, laddie! They were explaining it
tae their lesteners ]uist as Ahm daein here, tae you twa fellers!"
Now it was Errols turn to comment. ` seems like old Satan or Lucifer sure had plenty
of big ides about himself! All those T w1IIs1" particularly the bit about 1 w1II D IIK
G1 But it sure sounds like God chopped him down to size pretty good! ! get the bit
about bringing him `wn ! HeII and to `!n sIs / !n P1I, by the way! Sounds a bit
like uI wn pIIgn! right now, Prof, doesnt it!"
Again Chas was pleased that they had got the message.
Drew now spoke again: See what you meant about the saIamander, Chas! All
that walking amid the sIones o1 11re"! He must have lived on top of a VoIcano!
Weel, Ah dunno aboot that, Andrae, nor does anybody else, either, Ah fancy, But
thats aboot a that seems tae feet the peetcher, isnae it? But ah was also enterested in
that wee pairt aboot Lucifer - or Satan - bein coovered wishinin deeferently-coloured
gemstoones. Ah kind a get the peetcher of heem shinin wi a IaInDw IIIsn - as ef
he were covered frae heid tae toe wi bonny gletterin saIs - that reflaicted the licht in a
grand spaictrum o colours ]ust like ]ewels dae! Dye ken what Ah mean?"
His two listeners nodded their agreement. But drew was more interested in the
Stones of Fire". Professor, you dont reckon perhaps that this nI) mun!aIn / G
might possibly have been a vIan, do you? The reason ! ask is that, from what ! can
recall of ancient mythology, a lot of the great gods of different cultures lived on top of
volcanoes - like Zeus on top of Nount Olympus, throwing his thunderbolts around - or
the Scandinavian god, Tnor, who also tossed the odd thunderbolt off his own mountain
tops - he was a Sky god, too!"
Hey! Yean1 cried Errol. Zeus was also called JoVe, wasnt he? Wonder if he was
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another type or aspect of JenoVan?"
However, Chas felt that it was all getting a bit out of hand, and that they should also
be getting on, too. Ah dinna ken that OI)mpus was aiver a volcano, Drew, but Ah see
what ye mean. And yons a guide point ye make aboot Jove and Jehovah, Errol - but a
raither fancy Ahm holdin up the works, wiall this blether! Dye no thenk wed baitter be
oan oor way, lads?"
Within ten minutes, the three adventurers were once again sailing gently downward
beneath their canopies, the air about them steadily growing denser and their weight
growing ever less. As they descended, they were constantly kept aware of the gargoylish
creatures that followed them down by the frequent plopping" and pattering of their feces
and urine upon their parachutes. Errol in particular was revolted by this, but After Drew
had pointed out that the reptilian excreta was helping them by adding to their overall
weight and helping to push their canopies down through the thick air, he stopped com-
plaining about it. Chas wasnt entirely sure of the accuracy of Drews physics in all this
seemingly logical point, but he said nothing.
!t was on this section of their astonishingly deep vertical fall that they first began to
notice patches of lightness upon the rock faces about them, and here and there were little
glowing ob]ects which they eventually identified as curious forms of crystalline outcrops,
that seemed to be radioactively fluorescent in some way. Eventually, after they had fallen
a further ten or twelve miles, the glow of the algae or fungi on the rocks had become
bright enough to allow them to perceive each other and something of the chasm walls
around them. This was infinitely better than drifting down in a total pitchy blackness,
penetrated only by Drews helmet-lights. The other two had already decided to take his
advice and turn off their own lamps in order to save on precious batteries.
Drew had also noticed that their canisters of carbide were getting perilously low too,
so it was decided to keep the carbide lamps in reserve for their so]ourns upon the ledges,
where they were better able to top them up with water from their dwindling supplies of
that precious fluid.
From time to time, now that they had a faint twilight glimmer coming from the walls
of the huge abyss, they were able to make out the flitting, bat-like silhouettes of one or
two of the bolder reptilians, gliding and swooping around, between them and the walls.
Errol had discovered that a smart clap of the hands was enough to scare them away,
temporarily, at least. They obviously had a acquired a healthy respect for their revolvers
and had come to associate such a sharp and sudden sound with the equally sudden
deaths of several of their fellows, during their forays and attacks up above.
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However, a new distraction came to their attention.
Drew, who was gifted with magnificent hearing, was the first of them to pick up a
faint, distant rumbling sound coming from beneath them. Another mile or two and all
three of them were at length able to detect it. Chas was the first to identify it as the
sound of a mighty outpouring of wa!I, as if a dozen Niagaras were all thundering down at
once beneath their feet!
This gave them all furiously to think. !f there really was a vast waterfall down
below, it meant that, sooner or later they would reach the bottom of this gigantic gorge
and that their further progress might well end there - in a gigantic well of water! How-
ever, thought Drew, that was a problem they would have to face when they struck it.
Then he silently told himself: Ùn/I!una! nI / wIs, I sn1
He glanced at the luminous face of his gold Rolex watch - the last gift his father had
given him before he died. Bit ostentatious, but it had well and truly supported all the
claims that its manufacturers had made for it. Drew had sub]ected his to more varied and
violent tests than even its designers could have conceived. But this in no way altered the
definite fact that they had been drifting down for over twelve hours this day" - which
more than made up for Chass impromptu little Bible class" back at their previous resting
place.
!t meant that theyd come at least another 1orIy-e1gnI m1Ies further down, on top
of the thirty theyd already come! 5eVenIy-e1gnI Ioody m1Ies - and sI1II aI1Ve! !t
was hard to believe, but it must be close to right. Only another seVen nundred and
IwenIy-Iwo to go! Drew reminded himself, a little grimly.
But now it was time to scout around for another ledge or platform. Hopefully, this
time one that Chas would be able to land on safely! Judging from the thunder down
below, tomorrow was going to be a hairy sort of day - theyd need plenty of slid rest
tonight. Hopefully with their nIgn!-wa!n of unknown guardians on duty again.
He smiled again at their rather laughable divisions of à) from `nIgn!. However, it
seemed to work fine for them, regardless of the absence of sunlight.
At least, for Errol, the growing roar of the giant waterfall below them now drowned
out the ugly `plops and `dribbles that had continued to resound upon their canopies from
the horde of devils up above.
`Talk about `DIng Iapp n /Im a Izz) nIgn! he thought whimsically. `You
really have to hand it to these reptilian bastards, they got some kinda sense of humor!
But he must remember not to wrap himself in the canopy anymore, when he went to
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sleep! Better mention that to the other guys, too. Delight the hell out of èm no doubt,
but it was better than letting them lie in mn-pn all night!
`B.O. couldnt hold a goddamn candle to it! Uhuh! And thats an!nI thing! Better
start cutting out the language a bit, too, their angelic watchers might not take too kindly
to it!
`5II), LI1 Errol thought to himself, rather penitently and with feeling.
However, they had to continue descending for another three hours before they
finally found a safe-looking platform on which to land easily. This was quite a large
pro]ecting ledge and they were all able to get down on it without any difficulty, even
though it had a pronounced downward slope. But this very long day dangling in their
harnesses had taken a considerable toll on their stamina, not to mention their muscles,
and the areas that were chaffed by the straps of their parachute harness were severely
chaffed.
After landing they wasted no time in ridding themselves of their cumbersome gear.
And, thanks to Chass providential forethought, they were able to anoint themselves with
a soothing-cream that hed stowed in his kit. Hed brought it along in case of any recur-
rence of a persistent skin problem that had plagued him for years through too much
sitting, burning the midnight oil, at his study desk.
Because of their extra-long period of descent that day, Drew suggested that theyd
all earned an extra meal so they sat around Drews tiny calor gas-stove whilst he heated
up a dixie of water to which he added a pack of powdered tomato-soup. The water
seemed to take forever to boil, and Chas pointed out that it was the air-pressure that had
lifted the boiling-point of water. However, they were really grateful for the soup when it
was finally ready, and, together with a few dry biscuits, it refreshed and cheered them up
no end.
But, making the soup also served to show Drew that their water-reserves were
almost exhausted. They were now down to only one two-litre bottle apiece. He fervently
hoped that they would reach the source of the waterfall sounds within the next day, or
things would look grim for them! How much further down could the falls be? By now the
noise was so loud that they had to almost yell at each other to make themselves heard!
`Theres n wa) we mIgn! find out! he thought.
He rummage in his pack-pockets and found some more of the little cylindrical flares.
They would have to sacrifice one or two, to try and check out whatever lay beneath them.
Obviously, their parachute descent was going to come to an end quite soon now, and they
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didnt want to find themselves dropping into a tumult of thundering waterfalls. Being
drowned would be a rather an ignominious end to the expedition!
With Errol gripping his ankles, Drew squirmed forward in a prone position until his
chest rested upon the edge of the sloped pro]ecting ledge and he could look directly down
into the faintly-illumined depths of the pit below it. Resting his elbows on the edge of the
rock, he ripped off the top of a flare and dropped it into the thundering gloom. As it fell,
the flare burst into a bright pink radiance that lit up the chasm for quite a long distance
beneath them.
And there, perhaps only a mile and a half below them, they saw the first of the great
waterfalls ]etting out of the rock face as if from a gigantic faucet, and, as the flare fell ever
further, other, similarly vast ]ets became visible, shooting forth magnificently out of both
sides of the chasm, their foaming waters mingling as they thundered torrentially down-
ward into a huge churning maelstrom of frothing water! At that point, the flare expired in
the swirling flood. The darkness was intense after it died, but at least they had actually
sn the source of all the tumultuous racket!
Errol went to help Drew to his feet, but he declined the offer. There was something
else that hed noticed at the last moment before the flare was extinguished.
He would have to expend another flare to make sure that his eyes had served him
correctly. He motioned Errol and Chas to ]oin him in peering over the edge of the
outcrop. As all they lay staring down, Drew tore open a second flare and dropped it.
They gaped in amazement at the awesome sight revealed below, but this time,
Drew was able to focus his gaze at the centre of the milling water beneath them. !t
actually was swirling! The whole body of foaming water was 1n IruIn a great revolving
maelstrom, and there, at its centre, was a huge funneling, tubular aperture, a giant
whirlpool-vortex of open space spiraling away downwards! Drew had no idea of its
diameter, but it was certainly huge!
As the second flare was doused, they all withdrew back up the downward sloping
ledge to where their baggage lay with Drews helmet-lamps perched upon his backpack
illuminating their way. And now another great surprise awaited them!
They had been too preoccupied as they landed upon the outcropping section of the
ledge to notice that, instead of a smooth olivine rock wall rising behind it, the ledge
continued backwards into large cavernous opening in the rock! This was indeed a find!
Drew quickly donned his lighted helmet and walked on into the gaping opening, with his
comrades following closely.
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As they entered it, they saw that it wasnt so much a cave as a great !unnI mu!n,
with curiously smooth walls. True, there were a few rocks lying around, but even these
looked more like giant rounded pebbles, rather than the ]agged rough chunks they had
found higher up on other ledges on the cleft walls. Chas ran his hands thoughtfully over
the tubular tunnel walls and over some of the rounded rocks. Then he paused in his
inspection and turned to the others.
A dunno waither yeve noaticed, but this tunnel wasnae a magma-tube or anny
such, it was cairved oot by the erosive action owater! See! Yeve ainly goat tae feel the
smoothnaess o it, and o these stones, too! Ahd wager a years sailary that this was once
a water-conduit, the same as those doon below! Ahd say that this was once the bottom
o the chasm but the water has sence eroded the whoole theng deeper and deeper intae
the Airth!"
! get you, now, Prof!" cried Errol. You think this was once the bottom of the pit and
that this was the main water drain that probably ran out and down into some sort of
central plughole! And now the water has found new outlets lower down, its ceased
running through here! That would mean that this tunnel must lead back to some sort of
big underground river - is that the general idea?"
Which also means we might be able to refill some of our water-bottles!" said Drew
enthusiastically. We can only hope it doesnt run too far back before we find the source!"
He thought for a moment, then he added: You know, fellers, it strikes me that we ought
to take a day off tomorrow and check this out. We need the rest anyhow, since this is our
seventh day, below ground. ! guess that God wont mind if we also Ps! n !n 5vn!n
Da), too! Lets call it Sunday, eh?"
Everybody grinned - especially Chas - since he knew it really was 5una), according
to his notebook!
Then, being dog-tired, they decided to turn in. But, after Errol remembered to point
out that their parachute canopies would no longer be very pleasant to use as covers, Drew
remembered that they had also packed one of the car-covers apiece. So they dug them
out from the bottoms of their packs and managed to ]ury-rig a tent of sorts. They used one
folded car-cover as a groundsheet, and the other two as a double layered makeshift tent
draped over a rope. The rope was strung between two pro]ecting corners of rock across
the cave-entrance. The edges were held down by some of the rounded stones from
inside the cave, in much the same way the girls yurt" had been, in the volcano lava-
chamber seventy-eight miles above. They felt a lot more secure inside this shelter, flimsy
though it was, than they had when lying out on the exposed ledges above them.
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Drew was the last to fall asleep, and he, for one, was looking forward to the next day
being one of normal mobile activity, instead of dangling helplessly on a parachute, with
the harness steadily biting into his crotch and armpits, cutting off the circulation and
making his limbs go numb. He had even worried about deep vein thromboses forming
and had urged the others to frequently raise and lower their legs and feet as much as
possible, by way of a precautionary exercise. As it was he ached all over after their last
marathon descent. However, his head ached worse as he pondered what possible
options they could have left in getting down deeper.
Hed known that the chasm would nav to end sooner or later, and they truly had
been extremely lucky that it had gone down so deep. But they now had to find another
similar shaft that went even deeper. There had to be one! Perhaps they might find some
sort of access to one along the water-tunnel beside them in the morning? He found
himself wishing the nIgn! away, but the more he tried to get off to sleep, the more active
his mind became. !t revolved like a runaway squirrel-cage around the host of wild ideas
that flashed through his brain, one after the other.
!n the end he became so utterly restless that he had to get up and go outside in
case his tossing and turning awoke his friends. He picked up his helmet and backed out
of the tent, pulled the flaps down behind him and weighted them together at the bottom
to keep the body warmth inside. The atmosphere had been steadily getting colder and
damper as they had drifted down toward the watery region at the base of the shaft. `This
really was one in the eye for all those scientific buffoons who had predicted that, at this
depth, the heat rising from the mantle would have become so fierce that they should have
long since been cremated by it, if not by the magma itself! !nstead, if things went on as
they were going, they could perhaps expect to die of cold and exposure!
He straightened up, raising his hand to switch on his helmet-lamps, but before he
could do so, he glanced up and saw before him the same row of shimmering blue-white
ethereal white-robed figures he had seen in his dream-vision ]ust the other night, and
which Errol had seen only last night! Tney were reaI! There was no way he was
dreaming now. He could feel the damp chill and hear the thunderous roar of the water-
falls below, sharply enough. No! Wnever, or wna!ever, these entities were, they were
absolutely 1a1r-d1nRum!
Strangely, even faced with such an uncanny phenomenon in reality, it didnt seem to
worry him at all. !n fact, the very opposite was true! He felt a glow of warmth emanating
from them that radiated right through his shivering body! His mind was suddenly at
peace and all the worries and doubts that had been assailing him, swiftly evaporated. He
moved over closer to them, sensing that they knew he was there. And as he did so, one
of the beings turned his spectral head towards Drew smiled at him benignly. And then he
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did a most peculiar thing - he raised his ghostly right arm and bending his wrist, he
pointed straight downward at the very eye of the great vortex beneath them! `Whats he
trying to tell me to do? thought Drew. `Does he want me to ]ump over the bloody edge
and kill myself?
But the entity seemed to have read his mind, for he smiled again at Drew and shook
his head gently. Then he pointed at Drew again, and this time, at the tent, too, then
pointed downward very positively at the eye of the maelstrom below. Strewth! Drew
thought to himself. Now he wants all of us to commit bloody suicide!
This time the entity stared at him with a most penetrating gaze as if looking directly
into his mind. Drew felt a curious numb, buzzing sensation, and at first he resisted it, his
mental encounter with the demonic reptilian immediately surfacing and setting off alarm
bells in his memory.
But then he began to hear a faint, inner voice speaking to him - inside his head, and
in his own language! At first the voice wavered in and out like a distant, faulty radio
signal. But then another of the entities turned around to regard him in the same intense
way, and suddenly their voices ]oined as one, and he `heard the message quite clearly.
Of course, he was by now well aware that they were speaking to him telepathically and
that they meant no harm to him and his friends, so he concentrated on `listening to their
words with all of his mental power.
You must go onward through the portal." said the double voice. You and your
companions together - there is no other way through but by the portal." Then again they
both turned toward the fearsome maelstrom far below, and pointed their ghostly fingers
toward its open tubular eye".
The question bubbled up into the forefront of his mind. but how could we enter
such a whirlpool? Wed all be drowned!"
With a ]olt the answer came back immediately. You will not die! We control the
portal, so no harm can befall you."
Drews response reached them even before he had finished thinking it." How could
we ]ump into the water from such a height? The very fall and impact would smash us
instantly, were only human beings, not spirits like you!"
Ah, my friend! We are not telling you to ]ump into the water! We ask you to use
the air-floating apparatus you have used thus far. You have only to launch yourselves forth
as you have hitherto, and we will guide your descent into the portal. We ask that you trust
us completely in this - or return back whence you came."
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Drew thought feverishly. This was all a bit too much for even him to absorb.
`! cannot make such a great decision without consulting my friends! he thought.
Ànd we cannot return to our starting place, anyhow, its too far for us to possibly climb
back now! We would die long before we could even climb a mile or two. We are only flesh
and blood!
The answer instantly flooded back into his mind. `There is no need to answer us
now. Speak with your friends. Then, when you are ready to enter the portal, you have
only to do as we have said, and we will be here to control your passage through it. But
know this. That there will be another, final test of faith awaiting you after you emerge at
the other side of the portal. !f you decide to go on, then do as we have told you. !f
instead, all of you choose to return to your world, then we will send you back to your point
of departure up inside the volcano. The decision must be that of you all. But remember
our words and Knw !na! w aI nI! We have spoken!
At this ]uncture, the two figures who had faced him turned away and returned to
their former vigil, leaving Drew standing gaping in a total emotional quandary. He felt in
his mind that the communication had now terminated, nor did feel that he wished to
resume it at this point. He had so much to consider. What if these entities were some
form of demonic spirits trying to tempt him - and his comrades with him - ]ust as Satan
had once tempted Jesus Christ during his initial so]ourn in the wilderness, after His bap-
tism by John the Baptist? Didnt the Bible say that Satan and his demons could appear as
Angels of Light, to confuse the righteous?
Now where on Earth did ! ever hear about all InaI?" Drew found himself asking,
out loud. Then it occurred to him that perhaps it was something hed been told as a
youngster by his Num, or maybe at the Charters Towers C of E boarding-school during
their weekly classes in PIIgIus 1ns!Iu!In. Strange how things could bury themselves
in ones subconscious for donkeys years without one even being aware that they were
squirreled away in there!
He suddenly became aware that he wasnt alone. He heard a soft footfall on the
rock behind him, and turned swiftly - ready to fight for his life - only to find Errol standing
behind him staring at him speculatively.
So what aI you going to do then, buddy?" he asked quietly.
Drew was astounded . You mean you heard all that, too?" he asked. How the heck
uI you? They were speaking to me In m) m1nd!"
Errol grinned. What makes )u so special, old chum? They were speaking to me,
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too, in the sam wa)!" Then he explained how hed woken up and noticed Drews ab-
sence, and as he rose to go outside to look for him, a voice had spoken within his head.
Tw voices in actual fact. The guardians and Drews. !t was ]ust like accidentally listen-
ing in to a conversation on a telephone party-line!" he said. Dont ask me now ! heard it
all - ! ]ust d1d! End of story!"
But ! never heard a blooming pp out of you, mate!" exclaimed Drew.
Probably because ! In! sa) anything!" replied Errol. Then he continued. Howre
we gonna explain this to poor old Chas? Hell never believe us, will he?"
A voice boomed forth from inside the tent. Chas wilnae believe wnaI? Hae ye all
goane ravin bluidy mad, hanginaroond oot there in the cauld, clackin awa like a flock o
bluidy hens while a bodys tryin tae get some sleep! Ets a guide ]ob ets 5una) the
morn! Ahll hae tae sleep tell lunchtime tae catch up, noo!"
Within seconds they had returned inside the tent and begun to tell the dour old Scot
what had ]ust transpired. Then, when they had finished, they sat back, and waited for
the anticipated explosion of scientific protest.
But it never came. !nstead, the professor sat and considered what they had told
him in a deep silence. Then finally he spoke to them both in a surprisingly quiet and
reasonable tone.
Why did ye thenk that Ahd doobt ye?" he asked. Surely ye ken by noo that Ahm
a man oGoad, sae Ah see nae reason tae doobt the word o His angelic maissengers!" He
paused reflectively. The whole Bible is full o stoories o maen an prophets an such, bein
gien maissages from Goad, if ye took oot a the pairts that tell o such thengs, yed hae
nae Bible laift tae speak of! NO! Ahll accept et as read that what yeve baith tellt me as
true, soo whatever yere going tae doo, lads, ye can coont me in et, an all!"
Even ]umping down inside a flaming great whirlpool, Chas?" asked Drew.
Aye! Even !naI!, Andrae!" laughed the professor. Ahd neer hae believed Ahd
ever gae doon nsI a bluidy volcano, much less pairachute nigh on eighty miles doon
unIna!n et! Sae whats a wee bit o a maIs!Im between friends, eh?"
Drew and Errol once again stared at each other in amazement at the sheer Celtic
intestinal fortitude of their one-time mentor and tormentor!
The following `morning, after sleeping like logs for the remainder of the `night, the
three resolved that before even considering the suggested leap into the maelstrm below
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their camp, they should at least explore the tunnel behind the ledge of which their cave
was but the entrance vestibule.
So, with their helmets on and new batteries inserted in their head lights and torches,
and the carbide lamps refilled with both granules and water, and their revolvers check and
reloaded where necessary, plus a handful of spare rounds in their tunic pockets, they set
forth. Drew also suggested that they should take along some of the empty plastic water-
bottles, which they had saved since they weighed virtually nothing, and because Drew
had always heaped scorn upon desert movies that featured scenes in which the lost hero,
struggling grimly over the arid sand dunes, parched and dying of thirst, invariably threw
away his empty water bottle along with other discarded impedimenta !
The first thing they noticed as they ventured along the tunnel was how easy it was
simply to waIK. At first they put it down to the refreshing change from dangling upon
parachutes for so long, until Chas suggested that it was because theyd actually become a
good deal lighter in weight than theyd been up in the magma chamber. He demonstrated
this by simply ]umping up and down on the spot. His two companions were quite sur-
prised at how high and easily he was able to bound upwards - almost as if he were on a
trampoline!
However, Drew felt that this confirmation of his belief that the gravitational pull
decreased as on descended beneath the crust implied that his ma]or fear was coming
true, and that at the mid-point of the crust, they might well find themselves floating
trapped in a region of zero-gravity, unable to move either forward or backwards - unless
they could somehow haul themselves along by their fingertips in crevices in the rock walls!
He quickly dismissed the thought, at least for the time being. As Chas had said earlier in
one of his Bible quotes, 5u//IIn! un! !n a) Is !n vII !nI/, which he guessed was
Christs way of saying Jus! nIn )uIsI/ wI!n !a), an I! !mIIw !aK aI /
I!sI/1 Not such a bad philosophy, at that!
The tunnel went a great deal further than they had imagined, and Drew had to keep
chivying the professor who kept pausing to minutely study any changes or excoriations in
its smoothly polished surface. They must have traveled an effortless two or more miles
before they encountered anything remarkable, and then it was truly staggering!
Their tunnel which had swooped and curved around somewhat, suddenly ended in
a vast open stadium of a cavern, with a vaulted ceiling hundreds of feet high, and of an
indeterminable length and breadth. This was due to its being obscured by a dense,
saturating mist that arose from a great turbulent river, almost a hundred or more yards
across, which flowed very rapidly but astonishingly quietly across its breadth. They were
only a few short yards away from its nearer margin.
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Before Drew could utter a cautionary word, Errol leapt happily forward in a couple of
kangaroo-like bounds that almost carried him into the heart of the rushing torrent, but
fortunately he was able to scramble back to safety before he was carried away. But he
had at least discovered it to be nothing more than pure fresh crystal clean water, and not
the possible acid or corrosive liquid that Drew had feared.
Hey, you guys!" shouted Errol, "Come on in, !n wa!Is /In! Even if it Is as cold as
a witchs ass!" Then he scooped up a handful and rinsed around his mouth.
Wow! !ts terrific!" he cried. Tell you what, Drew! !f we could set up a bottling
plant down here, wed make a killing in the mineral-water business!"
He cupped his hands and scooped up a good mouthful which he then drank down.
Drew and Chas watched him closely to see if it had any adverse effects on him, but he
simply beamed back at them and suggested they sample it for themselves.
Drew then decided to give it a go, and tried it for himself. !t tasted almost like
lemonade, with the same bubbly effervescence of carbonated water one finds in soda-pop
soft drinks. !t was really delicious and refreshing and, upon seeing Drew drinking it, Chas
also tried it.
Guide Grief!" he shouted." Wheers the Da!!Is? Ah fancy that well be drenkin
naethin but /zz) Imna for the raist o the ]ourney!" Then noticing that ]ust beyond
their tunnel exit and eddy of the swirling river had carved out a small pool in the rocky
bank, he added: Aye! And bluidy Da!nIng en it, ana!"
And suiting the action to the words, he immediately set about divesting himself of
his gear and his clothing, and was soon wallowing like a seal and blowing like a grampus
in the spa-like pool. Nan!" he gasped to Drew. Ets heillish auI - but ye wouldnae
believe hoo I/IaIsnIn et is!" He then plunged his head under the surface and came up
whooping with glee. Yer baith bluidy mad" he yelled, if ye dinna tak the chaince o such
a grand bathe while ets oan oaffer!"
Drew and Errol needed no second bidding. Within a couple of minutes all three
were splashing around in the icy but invigorating crystal water, shouting and laughing, as
happy as sandboys. The only problem, when they finally emerged wonderfully refreshed
and clean, was that they had no towels to dry themselves. However, Chas himself showed
them how to get dry quickly, by racing back and forth along the coarse silica sandy bank of
the great river.
By the time they had dressed themselves again, and donned their helmets, all three
of them felt like brand-new men. The mineral-laden bubbly water had also reinvigorated
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their spirits as well as their bodies. Drew grinned at the others. Ny word, fellers!" he said
brightly. That was well worth the blooming walk! ! reckon wed better get those water-
bottles filled before we forget, too!" He glanced across at Errol as he spoke - only to
notice that he was standing stock still, gazing all around the great cavern in sudden awe
and amazement. Whats up, Errol?" he asked, in a voice filled with concern.
Errol simply waved his arms around him in wonderment. Havent you guys noticed
something pretty strange?" he said, in an incredulous tone.
Noticed wna!?" asked Drew, staring mystified about the hazy mist-filled cavern.
Dunno what you mean, old son?"
The goddamn L!GHT!" Errol yelled. None of us even noticed it when we entered!
The whole darned cavern is full of DAYLIGHT!"
!t struck Drew and the professor like a bolt from the blue! Errol was right! The place
was filled with a pale misty effulgence, a pallid white gleam that reminded Chas most
forcibly of the early dewy morning light of his native Scotland. !t was truly astonishing
that they hadnt even noticed it as theyd emerged into the cavern. But what baffled them
all was how this could possibly be? They were now well over eighty miles below the
surface, so how was it even remotely possible for a)IIgn! - for such it truly seemed - to
penetrate to such a depth? But the professors keenly analytic mind was already search-
ing for a scientific answer. And sure enough, after a few moments of searching, he found
it. He stepped back almost to the rivers edge and turned to look upward at the walls of
the cavern above the tunnel mouth behind them. The rock was festooned with large
colonies of the fluorescent algae or crystalline growth they had begun to see upon the
walls of the pit during the past day or so of their descent. !t must have covered the entire
surface of the caverns rocky interior to engender so much radiance. And this, in turn,
was diffused so much by the perpetual mist of the river, that it took on the appearance of
misty daylight as one might see it on a cloud-enshrouded mountain top!
For a brief moment following this discovery, Drew felt slightly disappointed, since
hed suddenly found himself hoping euphorically against hope that, in some mysterious
way, they had been transported to the surface of the !nner World they sought so keenly to
enter. However, this feeling of despondence passed as suddenly as it had appeared, and
he was able to marvel at it, and en]oy with the others the wonderful and heartening effect
it had upon them all.
This had indeed turned out to be a marvelous one-day holiday" for them all. As
they finally turned their backs upon the wondrous scene and reentered the tunnel, they
found themselves filled with a new sense of purpose and determination to get over the
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next hurdle in their odyssey with whatever grit and effort it might require.
However, as they emerged from the tunnel back into the comparative inky darkness
of the pit, they were confronted by a truly nightmarish scene! The sloping platform was
alive with their reptilian enemies, busily engaged upon tearing down their tent and rum-
maging through their belongings! The hideous horrors swung around snarling and hiss-
ing as the lights of the mens helmets fell upon them, and several rushed forward to attack
them, with yellow, vampirish fangs fully exposed and the long curved talons of both hands
and feet ready to rend and tear at their flesh!
Drew felt thankful indeed as he produced his revolver and aimed it at the leader of
the swarm, that hed suggested arming themselves before exploring the tunnel. Cnoose
your IargeIs1 he roared, and soon the three were blazing away at their vicious attack-
ers, taking a deadly toll as they charged screaming at them. The first six or seven
reptilians fell, dead or dying, to slide over the edge of the sloping platform but a second
wave at once sprang forward to fill the places of the fallen, only to share the same fate.
Those that had only been wounded were still knocked off the ledge by the solid hammer-
blow impact of the bullets at such close range. They toppled backward, howling in pain
and terror, into the huge, madly-swirling whirlpool far below. !t was a scene that far out
rivaled that which had been enacted in the magma-chamber far above, for the foul crea-
tures of darkness were now in their own stygian element, with only the helmet-lights of
their hated human foes to face.
But the guns were the deciding factor, and, after the loss of nearly half their number,
the rest of the fiendish monsters launched themselves off the ledge with their membra-
nous wings" extended, and vanished howling and screaming into the darkness. Their
retreat came only ]ust in time for the trio, as even though few shots had missed, thanks to
Drews command to pick their targets with care, they had all emptied their revolvers.
As they hurriedly reloaded their weapons, they took the opportunity to glance around
at the appalling havoc that the reptilian demons had wreaked upon their scattered and
tattered belongings. All that seemed to remain intact were their chutes, which had fortu-
nately been stacked ]ust inside the entrance to the tunnel, and a few bits and pieces of the
contents of their torn backpacks. !t all looked a truly ominous sight. And it took a very
great effort of will for all three of them not to ]ust sit down in total despair, and abandon
all hope of going any further - or even of going back!
By the time they had finished sorting out what was left - since much of their food
had been eaten by the reptilians and many of their other supplies had been torn apart or
tossed into the depths. All they could salvage were a couple of dozen batteries, a number
of the Survival Ration-Packs - which, fortunately, the reptilians hadnt recognized as food
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containers - about a dozen of the little cylindrical flares which had rolled away to one
side, and two or three sealed boxes of ammunition.
Chas was especially delighted however, to discover his Bible and his notebook still
lay intact, together with his pens, in a side-pocket of his ripped and ragged backpack.
But, whilst Chas was elated that these had been spared, Errol whose own backpack had
been shredded virtually to pieces, pointed out rather heartlessly - in Chass opinion - that
they couldnt be eaten, so what was the big deal?
The silver car-covers-cum parachutes, that had formed their tent, were little more
than shredded ribbons of plastic now, but Drew untied the ropes from their corners, and
rolled up several of the wider ribbons of material. His own backpack had miraculously
remained almost intact, even though its contents had been emptied out upon the ledge
and looted. And he was able to retrieve some loose ammunition from its side-pouches,
plus a further handful of flares, and most useful of all, his sheath- knife, still safe in its
sheath!
The radio handset was also still in its own pouch - not that it was of any use down
here, in the bowels of the Earth, of course! However, he hung on to it. !t might be useful,
should they ever encounter any !nner Earth dwellers - which seemed highly unlikely now
- to at least demonstrate the development of technology on the outer surface.
Errol, who had lost virtually everything he owned - apart from a couple of tattered
garments - was utterly devastated by it all, and retreated into a mood of gloomy despair
and foreboding. He seemed to have lost all interest in what was going on around him,
and re]ected all advances on the parts of Drews and Chas to cheer him up. Drew was
extremely worried about his chum. How could they possibly go any further with Errol in
such an appallingly depressed state?
However, there was nothing left for them to do now, but pack all these few remain-
ing items into the two remaining backpacks, and take their chances upon doing as they
had been bidden by their guardian entities. But first, after noticing the glint of shiny
metal amid the ruins of Errols backpack, Drew was able to retrieve several useful-looking
stainless-steel rods that had formed its framework. He thoughtfully slid these down the
corners of his own pack, feeling that they might come in extremely useful at some later
date - particularly as wapns perhaps, once their remaining ammunition had been ex-
pended.
By great good fortune, their parachute-harnesses were still attached to the chutes
themselves, so they had no worries on that score. All that really remained now was to eat
one of the remaining Survival packs - which would now have to be divided between them.
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And then ]ust ]ump for their lives - I wna!vI Fa! nI In s!I1
They sat and ate their fairly frugal meal in a thoughtful introspective silence, each
thinking his own thoughts about the hair-raising prospect that confronted them.
!t was certainly a very big ask", thought Drew, to expect three intelligent men to
leap a mile and half down into the vortex of a gigantic maelstrom, especially when the
urging came from a group of mysterious entities who had appeared to be their guardians,
until this very `morning, when they had intended to get a few hours sleep prior to taking
this leap of faith. Where had their `guardian angels - or whoever they were - been when
the demonic reptilians had invaded their ledge and destroyed their gear? Was it possible
that they might have been mns In IsguIs, luring them to self-destruction in the
horrendous swirling lake below? !t was one of those things one had to ]udge entirely on
ones gut-instinct in the absence of tangible proof. However, he had to consider the
options. Where there really any left? There were none. CII!In1 They had one! They
could remain in their present site, and do nothing until their rations finally petered out,
then slowly die of starvation, or they could ]ump and risk a much quicker death by drown-
ing! Drew elected for the latter!
Errol meantime, was still wallowing in a deep depression. His usual cheery, extro-
verted self had undergone a great manic-depressive mood-swing. His depression cen-
tered upon losing so much of nIs gear, compared to Drew and Chas, who seemed to have
fared reasonably well, all things considered. Why did it have to be nIm who was the loser?
And why did it all have to happen so suddenly after such a great day as theyd had in the
big, lighted cavern. !t was always the goddamn sam! There was always something
waiting around the corner to knock a guy down after hed ]ust had a great time! !t was
like being mugged in a dark alley after emerging triumphant from a casino with a great
bag of winnings! He too pondered the absence of their guardians, but he assumed that,
since their three charges were inside the big cave having a ball their presence wasnt
required - so theyd ]ust stayed home. And now, he guessed Drew would expect him to
]ump off the ledge with him and the Prof. Well, he sure didnt have anyplace else to go, so
Cn sIa, sIa1 and Wn !IavIs IIgn!, !IavIs /as!1 Suddenly, after arriving at this
conclusion, he felt much brighter.
Chas was quietly thumbing through his Bible for a remembered quotation that might
explain the curious guardian angels who had failed them so badly, earlier on. Then he
suddenly found it! The book seemed to fall open on the very page! !t was in the writings
of St. Paul, 2 Corinthians,11:1+.An n maIvI; /I 5aIan n1mseI1 Is Irans1ormed
1nIo an angeI o1 I1gnI. `Weel noo! Yons a rum thought tae keck aroond an nae meestake!
he mused. He would have to think hard about it. But hed s!III ]ump if the others did. He
was far too proud to walk away from danger.
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But now Drew got up and began donning his harness, and the others followed suit.
! guess we have no really alternative, fellers!" he said, helping Chas to buckle up his
harness. The others silently nodded their agreement. Before tying his own full pack to his
harness, Drew bound a rope around a stone of about the same weight as his pack and
fastened it to the bottom of Errols harness. Chas had already secured his own. Well!"
said Drew, Now were all the same weight we should all hit the vortex at the same time!
So lets get this over with, once and for all!"
Then they stood in a row on the edge of the ledge whilst Drew primed and dropped
a flare. Then, as he counted down. On, Tw, THREE1, Errol yelled out GEROATmO1"
And, all together as one, the three leapt bravely into the unknown!
But they were not to be alone in their death-defying leap. Nor were they unseen.
High above them, many pairs of evil eyes had been watching their activities closely since
the battle on the ledge. The demonic reptilians had not retreated far after their ignomini-
ous defeat. Now they were looking for revenge as well as meat, and only awaited the
commands of their powerful leaders - for there were several among them. These were
brethren of the two satanic monstrosities that had been shot far above in the magma-
chamber, who were now fulminating with a fiercely burning hatred of these humans who
had dared to intrude into their Hadean realm - children of that same God whom they
themselves had so despised for millions of years!.
They had watched avidly as the humans scrabbled through the ruinous havoc that
their underlings had wreaked upon their camp, and had read their despairing thoughts
like open books. They had sensed with satisfaction the de]ection of one of the three, and
they had been filled with revulsion as another had picked up and looked into that ms!
na! BK and read to himself a foully slanderous remark written therein against their
Lord and Naster!
They would reserve the worst fate of all three for !nIs one - even though he pos-
sessed the most formidable and powerful God-Spirit of them all! Then, as they continued
to watch the humans and saw them preparing to make a final plunge into the depths, the
leaders hurriedly issued urgent commands to certain of their horde of demons. And as the
three men leapt off their ledge, they were followed swiftly by an unobserved mob of
gliding reptilians whose flight membranes were folded away to give them greater vertical
speed!
Nor were these lieutenants of the Archdemon the only witnesses to the brave leap
of the three men.
Hovering to one side of the vast pit, Nariannes astral form also watched her beloved
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Drew and his two well-loved companions as they drifted down below their canopies to-
ward the awesome spinning gulf at the centre of the great whirlpool. Before they
vanished into the depths, Hazel arrived ]ust in time to watch her own true love as he
descended with Drew and the professor, into the maelstroms fearsomely roaring, tubular
eye". But as they watched, they saw the hideous pack of evil fiends come hurtling down
from the blackness high above and plunge, howling, in chase of the three men, into the
swirling walls of the twisting, terrifying vortex.
A sense of tremendous Antarctic cold struck them both like the very breath of Lucifer
himself, and they knew that their presence had been detected by his evil minions of
darkness who had loosed this pack of demons after their men. Given Hazels inexperience
in battling such overwhelming dark powers, Narianne saw that there was nothing for it
but to withdraw instantly, before an attack could be directed at themselves. Her ghostly
right hand seized one of Hazels and they sped away at the speed of thought - a speed
infinitely greater that of light itself - following their brilliant silvery astral umbilicals" back
to their bodies which lay comatose in the bunk-beds of their trailer at Glengarry.
Narianne awoke with a start, her mind still racing from the unimaginable speed of
their flight. Then as she felt her pulse begin to calm, she hauled her stiff body up to a
sitting position, ]ust in time to see Hazels body give a violent shudder of shock. For a
moment Narianne thought the worst - that her dear friend might have succumbed to the
tremendous ]olt that such a swiftly-returning spirit can impart to a deeply comatose body,
and which can sometimes dislodge the sleeping soul.
This, she knew was often the IaI cause of so many people dying in their sleep.
However, she soon discovered that Hazel had gone into a deep sleep, and that her breath-
ing and pulse were perfectly normal. No doubt her spiritual weariness, due to her lack of
experience, would require a period of recovery in sound, dreamless slumber. So she did
not make any attempt to waken her.
!nstead she sat thinking of their present situation, and the likelihood of some form
of spiritual reprisal by the satanic forces they had encountered. Few people, she thought,
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even in this allegedly ènlightened age, realized their own spiritual nature, which was very
regrettable.
What most people didnt seem to understand was that a personality is composed of
!nI separate entities, the outer body, which is the tangible, material vehicle or earthly
shell which the soul inhabits and uses in the day-to-day business of living, the soul -
which is the essential, individual sI/"or anImus" of the person - the central, ImmI!aI
suD)! of the persons own consciousness, which is itself, in turn, the home of the spirit
- that unfettered part of the soul that is completely free to wander in many other dimen-
sions than those three which so trammel the fleshly body.
The Spirit, as she had been taught by her shamaness grandmother, was free at all
times to exit the body whilst it was asleep, but the soul had to remain with the body until
it died. Then, both immortal soul and spirit were released to return to their place of origin
- to their Creator, God, or The Great Spirit, whom many believed would permit them to
begin a new bodily so]ourn if they so desired and if they had merited such a privilege.
Under most normal circumstances, a persons spirit, if encountered upon the astral
plane, would usually present the bodily appearance of the person, except that it would be
free of any defects or disabilities that might afflict their carnal body.
But it possessed the capability of changing its appearance to suit any astral contin-
gency or purpose that might arise. Thus, if the spirit were being pursued by a demonic
entity in the form of, say, a wolf, it could - if sufficiently adept - change at will into a grizzly
bear, and turn ferociously upon its pursuer. Or it could turn into an ant and thus be lost by
its attacker, or perhaps become a wasp or a scorpion and retaliate by stinging its enemy.
Similarly, if, whilst on its astral wanderings, a persons spirit saw another approach-
ing whom it didnt wish to encounter, it could change its appearance to that of someone
entirely different. Such an ability need not be used for bad or nefarious purposes, there
were often cases where it was a useful and harmless expedient for either observing oth-
ers, or avoiding observation oneself.
However, it was an unfortunate fact that the possession of a spirit was not an gift
that was confined to the children of Light. !t was also shared by the denizens of the
Darkness, and evil spirits were legion! The entire surface world swarmed with such
demonic entities - both embodied and disembodied - so the powers of Light although
supported by God and his angels, were often outnumbered in the worldly realm by those
of Darkness, since the spirits of the good were taken to Paradise or Heaven, whilst those
of the wicked remained bound to the Earth pending ]udgement.
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This overwhelming abundance of disembodied evil entities meant that they were
constantly seeking to occupy the bodies of those who were lukewarm in their belief or
tried to stay neutral, and, after ousting or overcoming the resident soul, they were able to
work their evil in many more directly physical and carnal ways. This same danger also
applied to the bodies of astral travelers if they were careless enough to leave them unse-
cured and unsealed. Her grandmother knew of many people who had suddenly become
insanely evil overnight, because they had foolishly neglected to take the necessary pre-
cautions before ascending spiritually to the astral plane.
Evil spirits were similar in many respects to thieves and home-invaders who broke
into untended and unsecured houses. Even Jesus spoke of exactly this situation to his
disciples. Unfortunately, they had many choice and vacant residences to select from in
this ungodly and spiritually bankrupt day and age!
This was why she had seized Hazel and fled with all possible speed back into their
bodies. The Powers of Darkness were not slow to seize upon easy opportunities, and
were often almost as omniscient as the Great spirit Himself in such matters. There could
be little doubt that the Forces of Evil had already discovered the whereabouts of their
home and bodies. !t would only be a matter of time before they began to mount some
sort of attack. Not only upon themselves, alas, but upon all the other innocent and
unaware inhabitants of the station-homestead.
Thus it was Nariannes most pressing duty to advise them of this threat. Luckily,
both Joan and Bob, and their children were religious people who believed in God, so that
would help to get the message through to them. However, Narianne realized that she
might not get a very welcome hearing from Joan, who regarded anyone who dabbled in
psychic matters" as being at least ungodly spiritualists", if not actually in league with the
satanic enemies of God.
This was a common problem that she had often encountered, and in this respect
she felt that many otherwise sound and respected churches and religious organizations
were failing abysmally in their duty, by not emphasizing enough the spiritual, ps)nI
aspects of being a believer in God! God Himself, as the Bible clearly declares, is a 5pIII!
- as also are all of His Angels!
Her own mother, although having inherited her grandmothers Red !ndian shaman-
istic abilities, had ]oined a worldwide Christian church when she had married her white
Scots-Canadian father, Dave Stevenson, and had developed the gift of 5paKIng In
Tngus - not necessarily the languages of other nationalities of humans - but allegedly
the tongue of God and His Angels! !n short, they had claimed to be able to speak the
language that was spoken in Gods Heaven!
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However, what they hadnt realized was that Satan, who had formerly been Luci-
fer, Gods most-trusted lieutenant, in charge of all the angels, must also have spoken the
very same tongue! Along with all his ex-angelic demons, who had spoken it prior to their
huge rebellion and subsequent banishment to the Earth! Would this be any reason for
them to change their tongue? Narianne thought it most unlikely.
Consequently, after she learned that few, if any, of the tongue-speaking `prophetsor
laity of her motherschurch had any inkling of what they had a!uaII) saI in tongues, she
had reasoned that it wouldnt be so unthinkable that Satan or his emissaries could have
planted remarks of their own into the speech-centres of unwitting churchgoersminds,
that could actually have been InsuI!s to God - instead of the wIs / pIaIs the speakers
assum they were uttering! Also, many others, might in their vanity, have spoken noth-
ing more than self-delusional gibberish!
As for Narianne herself, she had no particular fears in using her spiritual abilities.
She had long ago realized that, for an astral traveller to go out into the astral realm
emanating waves of fear was to openly invite intimidation by an evil spirit. One had to go
forth armed with three principal weapons. The first being assured that you are in the
company of Gods Angels of Light, and therefore knowing that )u aI n! aIn before
the Powers of Darkness. The second being una/IaI / a!n, since the Spirit cannot be
killed, except by G alone, otherwise it is immortal, like the Soul. The third navIng n
/aI / 5a!an I nIs mns, for if you are a Child of God, The Creator, or the Great Spirit,
you have only to IsIs! the Evil One and his minions and they will /I from you.
These were great Truths that she had learned from both her grandmother and her
mother - descent among the Kwakiutl or KwaguI as with many other tribes, being through
the female line. Not that she had realized the true power of these weapons at the outset,
but she had soon discovered that they actually worked once she had become familiar with
astral travel and learned to depend upon her Creator-God-given spiritual willpower in
overcoming her fears.
!n many ways, venturing out upon the astral plane was akin to going out in an
automobile. The first experience of driving solo was often a terrifying one, and the fear of
being alone behind the wheel was great, as was the fear of crashing into another vehicle
and being killed. But as one became used to driving, and ones driving skills developed,
one lost the fear of being alone in the car, and of being killed, and one no longer worried
much about other oncoming drivers. Nostly they were ]ust as cautious about avoiding
you, as you were of avoiding them.
Soon the whole thing became almost as natural and subliminal as breathing. The
only danger in astral travel, as with car travel, was that of becoming too detached and
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casual about it. There were as many bullying demons on the astral plane as there were
raging road-hogs on the highways, so the same cautious and wary eye had to be kept out
for the one as for the other, but there were also watchful guardian angels on the astral,
too, ]ust as the highways are policed by patrolmen. The main thing was to stay within
the bounds of Gods Law upon the astral, as one would stay within a Citys Traffic Ordi-
nances on the highway! Thus one could travel in comfort and confidence wherever one
chose in the Realms of Light, ]ust as one could on the highways and byways of ones own
Earthly neighbourhood.
* * *
Narianne was roused from her contemplation by the waking of Hazel, who now sat
up and yawned after her sound sleep. Noi word!" she said, as she flexed her arms and
her neck-muscles. Thet was some dream, kuddo! Ut was so realestuc! Just loike ectuaelly
beung there!" Then she swung her shapely legs out of the bunk and stared hard at
Narianne. Ut was a dream, wasnt ut?" But Narianne solemnly shook her head. No,
Hazel honey, it was /I IaI! You and ! wI there together, and we saw them parachute
off that high ledge down.."
.Down ento a huge grite whirlpool!" gasped Hazel, still half in disbelief. Thin
those tirruble demons, loike thet one we saw in the big chaimber, caime doiving down
efter thim!" She nibbled her long fingernails as the truth of the thing struck home to her.
Oi seem to ricollict thet some of thim caime efter us, too, end you hed to greb moi hend,
love! Croikey Deck! To thenk thet Oi ectuelly saw !rrol end Drew end the poor old
professor venushung down thet dreidful grite drine-hole! Oh Noi Gawd! They must all be
Iwn boi now!"
And as the tears suddenly sprang out onto Hazels cheeks, Narianne ]umped up
from her bed and hurried to comfort her. But despite her assurances that their men
would get through it with flying colours, Hazel was for some time quite inconsolable, and
all Narianne could do was to hold her close and hug her tearful face against her bosom.
But, eventually, when Hazels heart-rending sobs had dwindled down to occasional moist
sniffles, Narianne was able to convince her that their menfolk were being guarded by a
number of Light-Beings, and that !n) would surely see that no great harm befell them.
You mean thiy were loike AngIs - from Hievn?" asked Hazel, dabbing at her
reddened eyes with a damp handful of paper-tissues.
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Yeah, ! suppose you uI say they were angels." Said Narianne. They were cer-
tainly Beings of Light, and the reptilians were vI) a/IaI of them, even though they hated
them! ! got a pretty good idea where theyre /Im, too, but ! want to make sure first!
Anyhoo, they wI astral spirit-pro]ections, ]ust the same as us, ! guess. ! saw them
yesterday when ! was keeping watch, and it was they who told the boys to ]ump into the
vortex."
Oi only hope thet your roight, Nerienne!" Hazel smiled, wanly. Et least, uts set
moi moind et rist, so you dont heve to worry about me maiking en ixhubetion uf moiself,
agine!" Then she got up and went into the kitchen area of the trailer to make them both
a pot of coffee.
Whilst Hazel was thus occupied, Narianne sat and pondered how shed be able to
convince Joan about the need to take some sort of spiritual precautions for herself and her
family. !t wouldnt be easy, that much she knew. But shed have to take the bull by the
horns and give it her best shot - and the sooner, the better, for everyones sake! But first
she must think things through as to how she should present the things she knew to Joan.
The two young women sat together for a while in silence, drinking their coffee, each
wrapped in their own thoughts about the events of the past week or more. Narianne,
thought of Drew and the great leadership he had shown, even though some of his more
madcap ideas had backfired more than a little.
The point was that hed gone the `/uII mII so far as his first-designated ob]ective
went, in showing that the Earth was other than Science believed. The full Ign!)-
mIIs in fact - which might well have already been doubled, trebled, or even quaIupI
by now! For she was sure in her heart of hearts that he and his buddies were still alive
somewhere deep within the crust of the planet. !f any of them had died, she felt certain
shed have sensed it by now. The genes of her shamaness grandmother thrived abun-
dantly within her, and her sixth and seventh senses had developed to full maturity now, so
she would have /I! his passing, perhaps even sn his spirit - before it passed over into
the safe keeping of the Creator Spirit
But she hadnt - so she believed implicitly that her man still lived!
HI Man1 She recalled the times she had been present, a watcher in the spirit, as he
had led the others onwards down inside the Earths crust, even when all the fiendish odds
were stacked so heavily against them. Drew had never known ]ust nw heavily - for sn
had seen the enemy everywhere under the surface - in pitch-black tunnels and passages,
in great caverns and grottoes, in deep chasms and pits.
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A passage from her mothers Bible came into her mind, one of the stories of Jesus -
the occasion when he delivered the possessed lunatic at Gadara - and when He asked the
demon within the madman his name, the demon had answered: Ny name is LgIn: for
w are man)!". Then Jesus had sent all the devils - at their own request - into a great herd
of swine, two thousand strong, feeding nearby, who then ran violently and madly down a
steep slope into the sea and drowned! Shed never figured out what happened to the
demon-spirits. But since they were immortal - at least until the time of Judgement - did
they then have to go in search of !nI bodies to occupy?
But the horrible thought that had struck her then - and had come back to her now
was this. !f two thousand demon spirits could occupy a single human host, how many
mIIIIns must there still be, lurking beneath and upon the Earth, still looking for humans to
inhabit? Even worse - nw man) na aIIa) 1ound sun nms? The grim spectacle of
scores of demons hurtling down after Drew and his two companions into the maelstrom
had forcibly reminded her of this particularly frightful concept.
Nariannes inner spiritual beliefs were a curious melange of those of her mother and
those of her grandmother, and those she herself possessed in a deeply psychic nature of
her own. Her mother who had taught her about the Triune Godhead of the white man -
God and Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit - had attempted to make her to ignore her innate
psychic senses, telling her that such feelings would leave her open to demonic posses-
sion.
But her grandmother still believed in only one God, The great Creator Spirit - vari-
ously known to the indigenous peoples of North America as the Great Spirit Gitche Nanitou,
Naheo, Tirawa, or Waka Tanka. And she had counseled her to give her hereditary spiritual
skills full reign. Otherwise, the spirits would become angry with her for neglecting their
gifts and send some great misfortune upon her.
Since then, she had grown up within the white educational system, and, due to a
classical education, had added other belief-systems and gods - such as that of ancient
Greece - to her fund of wisdom. Now she was a many-facetted, complex soul, who had
taken what she felt was relevant from all of these beliefs into her spiritual makeup. The
Christian God and the Great Creator Spirit were the same deity to her, but she clung to a
mixed mythos of stories and lesser gods from both, to which she added the old legendary
pantheon of ancient Greece. She was frequently astonished by the surprising parallels
between all these religious beliefs.
However, she felt most keenly that all of them shared a common Underworld of evil
darkness concept, and it was this that she now had to face - if only as an onlooker. She
had been taught by both her mother and her grandmother that a strong, brightly-burning
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spirit of goodness need fear no evil from creatures of the underworld. So she was able to
enter their domain without qualms.
Her ma]or concern however, was for Hazel, who was still a mere novitiate, and who
had never really been particularly religious until now. What little religious knowledge she
did have was of an infantile Sunday-School level. !t was now Nariannes self-imposed task
to put her through a `crash-course on psychic matters in order to arm her even if only
sufficient to protect herself from spiritual harm. Thus far, Hazel had made excellent progress,
but Hazel was still a mere tyro and extremely vulnerable. She would need to develop
Hazels psychic abilities a lot further yet..
But now she had to face Joan with the news about Drew and his friends, and try to
forewarn her against possibly demonic attack. !t was already daylight outside, and the
sun had already risen well above the horizon. !t was time for them both to go up to the
house for the morning meal.
Joan greeted them as they entered the huge homestead kitchen, and waved them
to their seats at the large kitchen table. Bob was sitting at one end of it, reading the
Brisbane Courier-Nail" newspaper. He looked up over his reading-glasses and said GDay!"
to them, and hoped that theyd had a good nights sleep.
Hazel very nearly blurted out the truth about her frightful experiences, but Narianne
managed to lay a restraining hand on her arm, before she did so. !nstead she asked Joan
if she wanted any help in preparing breakfast, but Joan smiled and said something about
T Man) CKs and that a womans kitchen was strictly her own preserve, and theyd
only g! unI an !nIs /!. So the two girls got on with their pre-breakfast cereal,
whilst Joan cooked their breakfast.
After a while Bob folded up his newspaper, muttering that it was full of nothing but
political nonsense today, then removing his reading-glasses and reaching for his pint-mug
of scalding tea he gazed at the young women thoughtfully over its rim. Wonder how the
fellers are goin?" he said. ! was talkin to Jimmy a little while back, an he reckons that he
had a dream that theyd found another deep shaft or something, and were well down into
the ground now!"
Oh, m n nw, Bob!" said Joan with a skeptical laugh. You cant take nIs word
for it! You know how Jimmy goes on about all that DIamIng mumbo-]umbo! !t wouldnt
surprise me if they all turned up at the back door at any minute, saying they decided to
give it all away - and asking whats for breakfast!"
She placed the girls breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast in front of them. ! bet
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you twos be glad if they I turn up, wouldnt you, eh, girls! ! know how youre missing
Drew and Errol. !m not DIIn, you know! ! fell in love with a nice young bloke once,
myself!" She winked at the girls, sniffed, and gave Bob a knowing look.
Oh, Yair!" Bob grinned back. An he was a real nansm young feller, too! Joan
didnt know how lucky she was roping in such a fine catch as nIm!" Now n winked at
Joan and the girls, and they all had a good laugh at his bit of repartee.
Bob drained his pint-mug in one huge gulp, burped with a murmured apology, and
wiped his mouth on his hairy forearm. Then he rose to his feet, and pushed his chair back
under the table. Well, !d best get back out there," he said, before the lads all think its
a bloody public holiday, and start skivin off! Catch you later, ladies!" He gave them a little
wave, pecked Joan perfunctorily on the cheek, and, grabbing his hat, he disappeared out
the back door.
But what he nan! told them was that he was heading out to the rocky outcrop and
the tunnel where the unfortunate steer had been so horribly torn to pieces.
A bunch of the station-hands were awaiting him on the other side of the big shed
beside their horses, and Jimmy had Bobs horse already saddled and waiting.
Once in the saddle, Bob turned to Stan Lawson, his other yardman. You got the
flame-throwers, mate?" he asked.
Stan nodded grimly. Yep, an plenty of bloody kerosene, too, boss! We should be
able to singe the bloody arses off the little buggers now, orright!"
How many head does that make now, Stan?" asked Bob. Three or four?"
!ts four, Bob, and thats four too bloody man)!" replied the yardman. Last time we
only nailed two of the ugly little bastards, with the shotguns. But this time weve got to get
the whole sodding nest of èm - an ! reckon DuInIn èm outs the surest bloody way, boss,
sames youd do with a nest of snakes or scorpions!"
Yair! Then cave in the whole bloody tunnel-system with gelignite, so their mates
cant take over where they left off!" added Bob, a grim vengeful look on his face. Orright,
fellers! Lets get to it!" he said, heeling his horse away into a canter.
Neanwhile, totally unaware of the fact that the reptilians had already surfaced as far
south of the Undara region as the Glengarry property, Narianne had finally found an
opportunity to broach the plight of Drew and his friends to Joan. She had also resolved to
tell her of the reptilian demons who had attacked and pursued them, and of the threat
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they now posed on a spiritual level for her and her family.
Joan had finally completed her chores and the three women were now seated in the
big lounge room, sipping cups of tea. Wnew!" she said, finally flinging herself into her
favourite chair, Whoever said that A wmans wIK Is nvI n musI have been a
woman! Still, ! suppose it beats sitting watching those ridiculously unbelievable soaps on
Tv!"
Narianne ]ust nodded her agreement, but said nothing. Nor did Hazel, who ap-
peared more than a little worried.
Joan thought they both seemed to be very preoccupied about something and said
so. Whats the matter, girls?" she asked. Youve hardly said a word since you came
upstairs this morning! !s it something ! could perhaps help you with? Youre not getting
bored out here are you? Because if you are, ! can always get Bob to.."
Narianne waved a reassuring hand. No, no! !ts nothing like that, Joan! !ts some-
thing that ! really nav to tell you, but !m not sure where to start .."
Well, how about at the DgInnIng then, love?" smiled Joan, a little quizzically. You
know, like Julie Andrews sang in Tn 5un / MusI - 1!s a VI) G PIa ! 5!aI!1
OK." Said Narianne. But !d better warn you right up front, that some of what !m
gonna tell you might upset you a little! You sure you want to hear this?"
Joans face was now a portrait of mixed curiosity and concern. Has this anything to
do with Drew?" she asked with a faint tremor creeping into her voice. Hes not been hurt,
has he? Hes not .hes not..?" She looked from Narianne to Hazel and back again, in
growing alarm.
Narianne hastened to reassure her. No, hes n! dead, Joan! !m absolutely sure of
that! Although he and Errol and Chas nav gone a very long way down now. Theyre way
outside of radio-range, so its no use trying to call them anymore. But were sure theyll be
]ust fine - arent we, Hazel!"
Hazel nodded her head rather unconvincingly. Oh, yeah! Oi rickon thiyll be all
roight, Joan!" she agreed, ]ust a touch too quickly.
But this wasnt enough for Joan. Well, if theyre out of reach of a radio-signal, how
can you Knw they not dead? ! mean, if theyre.."
Narianne had to grasp the nettle.
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Because weve both seen them earlier this morning!" cried Narianne. Look,
Joan," she said, leaning forward and taking hold of Joans hands. ! guess this might
comes as rather a shock to you - and youll probably hate me for it - but ! gotta tell you
anyhow. 1m a psycn1c! ! can travel In !n spIII! on the astral plane! !ve always had the
gift! And before you speak - " for Joan was staring back at her dumbfounded - !ts a gift
from God! ! want you to realize that, Joan! !m as great a believer in God as )u are!
And so is HazI, too, arent you, honey?"
Hazel ]ust nodded her head vigorously
Joan gaped at them both. Y-you mean you go round reading teacups and telling
fortunes?" she gasped." And pretend to talk to peoples dead relatives?"
NO! NO!" cried Narianne, Thats n! what ! mean at all! ! mean that ! am able to
pro]ect my spirit out of my body and travel into the astral dimension of light! Just like
wI aII supposed to be able to do, if we IaII) believe in God!"
Suddenly she could sense that Joan was beginning to get a vague inkling of what
she meant. The outraged glare had faded from her eyes, to be replaced by a look of
genuine interest.
She lost no time in explaining in a quick verbal outline how she came to possess the
gifts she had. Although the mention of her Red !ndian shamaness grandmother almost
upset the whole apple cart. Until she patiently and carefully explained that the CIa!I or
GIa! 5pIII! was to the Red Nan exactly the same Person as G was to the White Nan,
and, besides, she herself had been brought up quite strictly in the Christian faith and
tradition. She went on to mention the Gifts of the Spirit which God had freely granted to
all His believers, and the gifts that Jesus had promised his disciples and that whatever He
had been able to do, so also would they, and even greater.
Before long, Joan began to see clearly that Narianne really was speaking in all
sincerity, and that she had a great deal of knowledge on the sub]ect. Far more than
herself, in fact! Finally, after nearly two hours of intense talking by Narianne, Joan finally
declared that although it was all amazing, she believed that what she was saying was the
truth. Narianne was elated by this acceptance, but this was not the time for resting upon
her laurels. She now set about the grim task of telling Joan all about the hellish fiends
they had aroused i nsi de the vol cano, and of thei r own and Drew and hi s
comradesencounters with the demonic creatures.
Joan was utterly appalled at this terrible information, for Bob had told her nothing of
it. However, she was even more horrified when Narianne, together with supporting evi-
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dence from Hazel, went on to tell her of what they had so recently witnessed together
down the great pit, and warned Joan that they might possibly have been followed back to
Glengarry by some of these same ghastly angels from Hell!
Narianne was greatly heartened when Joan revealed that she and Bob were both
fully-baptized Christians, as were all of their own children - an Drew, too. True, Bob and
Drew both tended to use more than a little bad language from time to time, but Joan was
constantly trying to get them to cut it out. However, she felt much more relieved when
Narianne opined that Ba Language" was noI the same thing as the open swaIIng /
a!ns In Gs Nam - as swearing" was defined in the Bible. And in any case, most bad
language, vn !n wIs!, was really the normal language and terms for bodily functions
used by people in the original Anglo-Saxon tongue.
!t was only the so called gentlefolk" of the later seventeenth to nineteenth centu-
ries, who had frowned upon the more crudely-expressive words, words that had some-
how regained their original currency in the twentieth century, but largely as an expression
of rebellion against so-called polite society" and overly-religious bigots.
Narianne hadnt really wanted to get into all this comparatively irrelevant, off-topic
sub]ect, but she was prepared to use every argument she could in order to make sure that
Joan was completely convinced. And now, at long last, she finally was.
Well!" said Joan, when Narianne finally sat back and asked her if she had any
questions regarding all that shed told her. Where do we go from here? What can ! and
Bob to keep us safe? Are we supposed to get a bottle of holy water, like that exorcist
priest did in that horrible movie, and sprinkle it over these - these - !nIngs, if they front up
in our home? We arent Catholics, so ! dont kn.."
!t might work," interposed Narianne, but youd have to have /aI!n in it working,
and if youre not Catholics, you probably mIgn!n! believe in its efficiency as they would.
No. ! think your best defence is in prayer, even the Lords Prayer" would help - but if you
feel that you could pray to God and Jesus in a more personal way about the specific
trouble or intrusion, and ask for Their direct, urgent help, your prayer would be more likely
to be heard and answered at once! !t would be even better if you could all pray together
as a family, but ! dunno if Bob`d be the kind of guy whod want to do that! Only )u would
know him that well, Joan - What do yu think? WuI Bob go along with it?"
!m suI he would!" said Joan, with a faint smile. Especially if ! told him he na to!
You dont need to worry about that, Narianne! Theres a really good man hiding under
that rough macho" exterior! And if he already knows about these horrible creatures, !m
sure hell do everything in his power to help keep them away from here and his family! !
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think hes been hiding all this from me in case ! got frightened, or did my block! Dont you
worry about it, love! !ll have a ]olly good talk to him when he gets in!"
OK!" said Narianne greatly relieved. Just so long as you dont both get into a fight
about it! These demonic spirits would ]ust Iv that, and they could pick you off one by
one! Your real strength lies in presenting a solid front as a completely united group of
believers, so, whatever you do, n! aIgu about this. OK?"
Joan promised that she wouldnt. Then she asked Narianne what she and Hazel
intended to do. Did they want to come up and stay in the house with them? They could
use the mens beds, and if anything I happen, theyd all be that much stronger together
as one unified group.
Narianne thought hard for a moment or two about this suggestion. !t certainly had
its merits. Especially for Hazel, at any rate. But she personally felt that she would be of
much more use if she was out-of-body" and could move around much more effectively
alone in the astral-energy dimension. Hazel would be at great hazard out there in her
present inexperienced state of development, and would need a lot of looking out for. Ys1
!t would be a gIa! idea - and she herself would then only have to watch out for her own
safety! Hazel would be a whole lot safer with the Jacksons. There was a lot of strength
in numbers - especially when it came to prayer!
Right!" She said, finally. That sounds really fine to us! Doesnt it, Hazel!" Hazel
nearly swooned with relief. MI WI, u! s1 she grinned happily.
Joan insisted that they might as well start moving in right away. Narianne was to
take Drews room and Hazel was to occupy Errols. Before they could bring up their
personal things, however, they had to stack the mens gear into a corner of each room,
and Joan insisted upon changing the sheets and blankets, despite the girls asking her not
to bother. They both had felt it would in some way keep them closer to Drew and Errol if
they slept in their sheets. However, Joan was adamant, so they had to give in and let her
have her way.
Just after lunch, the house was suddenly shaken by a solid tremor as if a small
earthquake had struck the property. However, there were no further aftershocks such as
one might have expected, so Joan decided that someone must be doing a bit of blasting
around the local area - probably blowing up old tree-stumps or some such. They did
sometimes have relatively small earth-tremors, even in such an ancient and stable conti-
nent as Australia, but most of them generally occurred on the Eastern coastal belt down in
New South Wales. They used to do a lot of coal-mining down there. So, in the absence
of any repetition, they all simply carried on with the move.
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By the late afternoon, Narianne and Hazel had moved most of their needed gear up
into the house, and were settling in nicely. Once she had finished rearranging Drews
room to suit her own needs, Narianne went across to Errols room to see how Hazel was
getting along. Nuch to her surprise and consternation she found Hazel lying on Errols
bed weeping quietly to herself, he face buried in his pillow.
Hey, honey!" Narianne cried, placing a soothing hand on Hazels blond hair. Whats
all this about? Didnt you really want to move up here after all?"
Hazel sat up sniffling on the bed, and poured out her feelings to her friend. She had
felt very happy to be moving into Errols room, but as soon as shed sat down on the bed,
it reminded her forcibly of him and the plight he must now be in with Drew and the
professor. Here she was making herself comfortable in his room and his bed, whilst the
man she now knew she loved with all her heart was probably marooned in some pitch
black tunnel somewhere, maybe a hundred miles under her feet, facing God knows what
sort of awful trials, with the others!
!t had been bad enough seeing them parachuting down into that awful whirlpool -
let alone seeing those horrible monsters following them, but who could even guess wnI
they were now! Or even if they were s!III aIIv?
Narianne had to work really hard all over again to convince Hazel that she was one
thousand percent sure that they nan! been killed, and that they were pIDaDI) g!!Ing
aIng )us! /In - even though she seriously doubted the latter part of her remark herself.
Anyhow, she fully intended going out again that evening to see for herself how they were
doing. So Hazel was to quit worrying that instant, and start thinking a whole lot more
psI!IvI)! Shed tell her all that shed found out, ]ust as soon as she returned from her
travels.
!n the meantime, instead of moping around Errols room, she ought to go and see if
Joan could use a hand with preparing the evening meal. Bob would be home soon, and
hed probably be hungry! And what a shock he was in for when he found that !n)
moved in upstairs!
So, for the present, since she intended going out-of-body again in search of their
men, she would require some time by herself to prepare for the ]ourney, so if Hazel would
please tell Joan not to wait dinner for her shed be grateful. OK?
Her little pep-talk seemed to do the trick, and while Hazel went off to help Joan,
Narianne retired to Drews room, to meditate and pray for a spell, before setting forth
upon what promised to be indeed her most hazardous ]ourney.
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Quite apart from seeking out the guys, she was also intent upon making contact
with these mysterious guardians, if possible, and see what they could do to help them
fend off their demonic reptilian pursuers! She had no idea if they could be approached,
but she would certain give it the good old college try!
Then she sat down upon the polished floor, with her legs crossed in the classic
meditative pose, and let her mind focus upon positive thoughts of light and power, and
upon God and his angels. Her lips moving in silent prayer for the protection of the men,
the Jacksons, and Hazel. Then she asked God for His special protection of her own spirit as
it traveled into the dangerous world of spiritual and physical darkness far below.
She was so deeply into her meditation and supplication that she never heard the
excited hubbub in the kitchen, when Bob came home glowing with triumphant ebullience,
to tell of a great flame-thrower and rifle firefight with a big mob of reptilians up at the
outcrop, in which most of the creatures had been incinerated alive by his station-hands
and himself. And then of how they had finally destroying their caverns and tunnels by
blowing them up, thus hopefully ridding the district of the whole foul nest of scaly demons
once and for all!
By the time Hazel rushed excitedly into Drews bedroom to tell her of this latest
development, Nariannes spirit had already gone forth into the astral realm, and her lithe
young body lay comfortably arranged, in an extremely deep and peaceful state of uncon-
sciousness, beneath its lightweight duvet coverlet.
She softly kissed her comatose friend on the forehead, wishing her a safe ]ourney
and praying that Narianne might soon return and awaken to bring them good news of
their beloved menfolk and their older companion.
As they drifted down into the huge rotating hub of the great whirlpool, the three
adventurers expected their lives to be instantly obliterated, either by drowning or, if par-
ticularly unlucky, by the effect of the vortex vacuum on their organs of respiration. The
result would be fundamentally the same. Swift but nasty deaths - one possibly worse than
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the other - but it would still be the n, either way.
As they descended, Drew saw they were falling directly into the tubular vortex of the
huge maelstrom, which was easily some forty or fifty feet in diameter, if not more. How-
ever, in addition, he also noticed, as did his friends, that they were now falling at an
aIIa!Ing Ia! the closer they fell toward the vortex. !t seemed to Drew that they were
actually being suK down into it aIng wI!n !n aII. At least this should speed things up
- even if only their deaths - but at least they wouldnt die horribly in a vacuum! They
barely had time to grasp this fact before they were enveloped within the great revolving
tube of gyrating water.
But instead of sucking them vertically downward, the tube seemed to twist and
writhe around wildly rather in the manner of a tornado. How this could be through what
must surely be a tunnel in the solid rock, none of them had any idea - unless the tunnel
itself actually followed a tortuous path downward. For some reason, Drew found it strongly
reminiscent of a wormhole in space. He pragmatically put this down to his having watched
too many sci-fi films and Tv series, in which people had used such wormholes to leap from
one space-time location or dimension to another, using circular portals or stargates as
their points of entry and exit.
Naybe this was some sort of an earthbound version of such a phenomenon? But he
soon made another rather startling discovery. He was now weightless! Even his para-
chute was simply floating along flaccidly behind him now, a colourful but shapeless cloud
of useless fabric. By turning his neck, he could see that the others were experiencing
exactly the same weird phenomenon. !t was all very curious. And yet, despite this feeling
of weightlessness, they still had the uncanny sense of being carried along at an enormous
speed.
He glanced across at the swirling surface of the vortex tube. !t was now so transpar-
ent and glasslike that he could see fish and other water-creatures being spun wildly along
inside its walls of water. They seemed to bear the attributes of deep subterranean cavelife,
in that they were mostly pallid white creatures, often blind and eyeless. But there was no
doubt that, despite the tremendous whirling speed an the enormous centrifugal force
they must be sub]ect to, they still appeared to be alive!
Perhaps the speed of their descent in the tube was in some way counteracting the
centrifugal force? He gave up trying to figure it out. Hed never been especially DIIIIIan!
at the more complex physics aspect of geophysics, although hed know sufficient to pass
his finals with flying colours. But !nIs was really something well outside the ambit of
geophysics anyhow - more into the realms of m!apn)sIs, he though idly. He was
surprised to realise that he felt no particular fear. Nor did his companions from what he
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could see in their faces. They were all more or less resigned to their fate - whatever that
was going to be! The phrase: Go W1In Tne FIow sprang into his mind, and caused
him to smile ironically to himself. They ]ust didnt have too many options but to do
pIIsI) that!
Errol was thinking many very similar thoughts to Drew - and to Chas, if hed only
known it. But what mystified him more than anything else, was what was IIvIng this
amazing vortex or watery wormhole? Perhaps it was some sort of pressure-equalizing
thing? Hed been aware that as they descended, the air-pressure had steadily built up
and up. But, because their descent had been so gradual, especially over the past twenty
miles or so, their bodies and lungs must have had time to ad]ust on the way down. Their
occasional stops, (Ì snuI !na! D P1I-5Iops7 he thought whimsically to himself)
would have helped enormously, like the blood-gas balancing pauses an ascending deep-
sea diver had to make, en route to the surface.
The other thing that occupied Errols mind was the seemingly nImus vII!) of
their passage down the vortex! He had no visual means of gauging it, or any way of
finding a reference point for it. !t was ]ust an overwhelming and weirdly-combined sns
of /Ia!Ing a! gIa! sp! !f they had been out in interplanetary space, for example,
they could have used the planets as reference points, but here there was nothing apart
from the twisting smooth walls of water. Was the vortex - however formed - being DIwn
or suK through this twisting passage - and where would they emerge? Whatever the
answer was, this was an amazing way to travel! !t left dangling from a parachute for dead!
The professor was also observing all these same phenomena, but instead of at-
tempting to determine the solutions to the physics problems they represented there and
then, he had managed to extract his beloved notebook out of an inner pocket of his tunic,
and was busily struggling to ]ot down some observations of the nature of the phenomena
- hopefully for later and closer analysis in calmer surroundings.
One aspect of the entire bizarre experience which theyd all noticed, was an amaz-
ing lack of any noticeable noise! Drew wondered if this might conceivably be due to the
speed of their progress. !f they were travelling at more than Nach One, the speed of
sound, as in a ]et-fighter, then that mIgn! account for it. But he had no way to be sure of
their speed, so he finally gave up grappling with the problem and relaxed to Go With The
Flow", as hed thought earlier. Then another thought occurred to him. He turned toward
Errol who was at that moment looking away, and shouted out a greeting to him. But for
some weird reason, no sound came out of his mouth! And yet there was aII all around
them! He tried to come up with an alternative reason, but beyond his Nach One idea, any
other answer eluded him. `LKs IIK wI gIng ! D a/ /I !n !Im DIng1 he thought.
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Then another thought struck him. !n a revolving-funnel situation such as this -
particularly if it was being caused by suction - as in a waterspout, for example - WnIn
would be travelling the faster? The sluicing wall of water around them, or the air (I
snuI I! D a vauum} being drawn down (I up} inside it? He strove to come to grips
with this knotty mental problem as a means of shutting out the awful predicament they
were in, but somehow his mind refused to focus on anything other than the fearful reality
of their situation.
Eventually, he ]ust closed his eyes and dozed, in the hope that he might eventually
wake up from this nightmare in his own comfortable bed at Glengarry!
Errol was busy grappling with a problem of his own. He, like Drew, had noticed the
glassy smooth wall of the revolving vortex of water around them, but hed suddenly real-
ized that he could see things being whirled around within the water - the accent being
upon the word 5EE! How could he see an)!nIng by the rapidly-failing light of his helmet
battery-lamp - by which he should have barely been able to read the time on his wrist-
watch - much less see In! a wall of water twenty or more feet away? He recalled that
theyd renewed the batteries ]ust prior to visiting the lighted cavern, but the batteries had
run down with astonishing rapidity since then.
!t was then that he realized that the water I!sI/ possessed some power of light-
emanation! He thought hard about this phenomenon. Then it finally occurred to him
that this was probably water from that selfsame river they had disported themselves so
happily in, up in that great cavern theyd found, ]ust before their camp had been de-
stroyed by the reptilians. Obviously, whatever algal or crystalline light-source had illumi-
nated that vast cavern, had affected the water as it flowed through it!
This was probably why hed been able to s the vortex, as they descended into it,
long after the flare had died. !t hadnt occurred to him before, and hed bet money on
Drew not having spotted it, either. !t was an interesting thing to discover, and us/uI, too,
he thought, reaching up and switching off his helmet-lamp. Now they could conserve
their valuable batteries! He tried to catch Drews eye, but saw to his surprise that he was
asleep. So he turned and looked at the dear old Prof. He was still busily focussed upon
scribing in his notebook, his body now curled up almost in a foetal position so that he
could rest the notebook on his knee, among the limp billows of his useless canopy, thanks
to the increased IaK of gravity...
Gravityl That was another thing Errol hadnt noticed - or rather the !!aI asence
/ I!. !t had ceased to exert any effect upon them whatsoever! The three of them were
floating aimlessly around in mid-funnel, ]ust like in the video-movie clips hed seen of
astronauts in the Earth Orbiting Satellite space-station. He could only assume it must
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have something to do with being inside the vortex. Or had it? He recalled how they had
begun to notice a slowdown in their descent rate on their last parachute-drops, but theyd
attributed that to the thickening of the air at increasing depths. Could it have also been
due their steady approach downward toward the GIavI!)-FII? He had actually nursed
a secret doubt about any such phenomenon being possible. Hed rather expected the
IvIs to be far more likely the case. However, he hadnt wanted to argue with Drew
about it, so hed simply left it lie. But it looked now as though Drew had been right all
along!
Ah! At last Chas had looked up from his notebook and was looking across at him and
Drew. Errol pointed urgently at the wall of the funnel, made with his hands like a pair of
binoculars, and then pointed up to his helmet light-switch. Good old Chas! Hed cottoned
on right away, and was switching off his own helmet-light! Now Chas held out his palms
appealingly in puzzlement. Errol then wondered if Chas had noticed the zero-gravitation,
so he drew up his own legs into a lounging position then leant back with his hands behind
his head, as if stretching at his ease on a settee.
Chas grinned back at him and put his hands together under the side of his own head
as if composing himself for sleep - then he pointed at Drew, and grinned again.
No! you stupid old fart!" yelled Errol. Not goddamn sleep! GRAVTTY !"
!t was then that he too, realized that they were all essentially stricken deaf and
dumb. But the professor had managed to read his lips, and made out the word GIavI!),
for he now signaled his understanding - and his total bewilderment, by looking down and
running his hand under his own backside as if feeling for a seat or a floor. He also pointed
to his own mouth then cupped an ear with his hand frowning, to show that he too,
couldnt hear anything, either.
`Perhaps as well, too! thought Errol, thankfully, regretting what hed yelled at the
professor. Then he pointed at Drew blissfully sleeping, and back at himself and Chas,
placing his own hands together under the side of his face. Chas again got the message.
They might as well aII get a bit of shut-eye! Soon, they too had succumbed to their
weariness, and floated unconscious along with Drew.
Of course, none of them had seen Nariannes astral form hovering ethereally ]ust a
few feet away from her beloved Drew. But Narianne had at least found them all still very
much alive, if not perhaps kicking particularly hard, so she was very grateful for that.
However, she had also seen that, in the distance behind the three men, there was a
swarm of what looked like flies following them. Because of her spiritous state, Narianne
was able to immediately bring these tiny specks into close-up, and she was sickened to
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see that they were the group of demonic creatures that she and Hazel had seen diving
into the vortex after the men! However, they seemed to be keeping their distance, so an
attack did not appear to be imminent. She guessed that they would await a more oppor-
tune situation - perhaps at the other end of this amazing wormhole vortex - before at-
tempting anything. For the present, they appeared content to simply follow their quarry.
So Narianne decide to speed ahead and see where this twisting conduit led.
She traveled at the speed of thought itself, and the vortex vanished into a blur as
she swept along its length. Suddenly she found herself shooting out of the centre of
another great whirlpool and upwards into another great shaft. She did not stop to survey
the surroundings but continued onward and now, distinctly UPWAPD. This could only
mean one of two things. Either the vortex or wormhole was some sort of a pI!aI through
the Earths crust, or it had somehow IvIs I!sI/ in a weird kind of U-turned space-
warp, and she was returning up toward the interior of the volcano!
!t was as she realized this that she discovered that she was not alone. A small party
of other ethereally-glowing forms were descending toward her from above. As they drew
closer Narianne slowed her speed until she came to a hovering stop in the midst of a
section of the shaft which widened out to form a spacious chamber in the rock. Here she
waited until they drew near. !t was then that she perceived them much more clearly.
They appeared to be the same group of angelic-looking entities she had seen previously,
standing guard around Drew and his companions as they slept upon a ledge in the volcano
pit. Or, at least, they were certainly of the sam ilk!
As she waited, they came to a halt before her, and she was able to see now that they
looked like human men - but unIIK an) she had ever met in the flesh. Although they
were in the astral form as was she, they looked considerably larger than the humans she
knew. These were gIan!s! None of them appeared to be under seven or eight feet tall.
But all of them bore a striking similarity to each other, as if they were members of the
same family, and all of them were handsome, patrician-looking men, such as she recalled
having seen in illustrations of ancient Greek and Roman nobles, but their skins, instead of
being of an olive complexion, were of an almost marble-whiteness and emitted a bluish
aura of soft radiance - as she did herself - had she been aDI to s herself. The huge
spirit-men were clad in flowing white robes, and two or three of them sported short and
neat snow-white beards, which told Narianne that the members of the group must be of
differing ages.
But there were no signs of actual agIng among them. All looked strikingly fit and
healthy, and vitally alive. Their eyes shone brilliantly with an almost angelic purity, hon-
esty and sincerity, and the aural vibrations they emitted were of warm, kindly gentleness
and calming assurance.
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Then one of the bearded Elders" - for such she assumed him to be, although, but
for his beard, he looked no older than his companions - moved across closer to Narianne
and without moving his lips in speech, he addressed her telepathically.
Greetings!" His deep gentle voice said inside her spiritual mind. We are happy to
meet you! Few of our outer brethren or sisters approach this closely to our realm. Yours
must truly be a spirit beloved of the Creator! We have observed you before upon the
other side of the portal. You were watching over those whom you love. !s it not so?"
Narianne answered him in the same telepathic way he had spoken to her. Yes! !t is
true! ! too, have seen yourselves - or others like you - guarding those ! love, and for this
great kindness ! offer you my deepest gratitude! But tell me, sir, is it permitted for me to
ask a question of you?"
The Elder gazed at her with eyes full of profound wisdom and kindliness. You have
no need to ask, for ! have read it in your heart and your eyes! No, we are n! Angels of the
Almighty One, though we recognize you to be one dearly loved by Him. We are of those
from whom your human race stemmed in the far distant and ancient past - and, in the
flesh, we are much akin to your people on the outer surface, insofar that they and we once
shared a common ancestry.
But much has changed between our two races, and so we must remain apart and
separated until that wonderful time comes for us to be reunited again in brotherly love
and communication. Beyond this, for the present alas, ! cannot speak on this matter, for
that lies in other hands. However, you yourself, dear sister, are welcome to visit with us in
our homeland, and to ImaIn with us, should this be your desire!"
Narianne felt greatly humbled by his words and greatly honoured too, but her first
and primary concern was not for herself or her own keen curiosity regarding these giants
and their home. !t was for the fate of Drew and his companions.
But as she had thought these things, she had forgotten that the elder was attuned
to her psyche, and knew her every fleeting thought. He smiled at her sagely. ! know that
you are much troubled about your friends - one of whom is mI than a friend - and !
trust that they will win through this present time of trial, but it is not yet completed. They
will assuredly emerge from the first portal, but they have a final ordeal awaiting them
which they mus! pass or fail entirely upon !nII wn spiritual merits. This is not my
decree, but that of a higher Authority. ! am merely here to act as an observer. But, whilst
! and these others" - he indicated his companions - are thus powerless to intervene, )u
are free to render whatever spIII!uaI nIp you can to them. !f your friends emerge victo-
rious from this final test, then they will be permitted to cross the threshold into our world,
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but if they fail, they will be returned whence they came, or may even die. The outcome
rests with their wn spirits, an whatever spIII!uaI guIan you can render them. ! can
only tell you this, my sister, which may help )u to help !nm. Their spiritual eyes mus! be
opened and their hearts made pure, if they are to break the bonds that still shackle them
to the fierce world without, and only you, and perhaps n !nI, can help them to see as
you do!"
His brilliant violet-blue eyes fixed upon her own as he continued.
Before we part for the present, let me warn you that, in this endeavour, you and
that other one may be sub]ected to great spiritual danger, but we are at least empowered
to help with your wn preservation. But the task of making your friends see with new
eyes and to feel with new hearts rests solely upon yourself! ! can only tell you this, one of
them is very close to this goal, another is not so far away, the third may prove the most
elusive. We will meet again soon, you and !! Remember that we shall always be
watching over you, and that you are much loved by the Greatest Spirit of All!"
Then, without further ado, the Elder and his companions seemed to fade away from
her own already-enhanced vision and to vanish into some other hidden higher dimension.
She was once more alone. She had wanted to ask the Elder so many things. Wn was
the closest of the three to meeting the necessary qualifications? Who was likely to be the
most I//IuI!? Why couldnt they ]ust let !nm aII visit, and then return home again?
Why protect them so far and then suddenly leave them to face the final and most rigorous
test of all wI!nu! !nII nIp?
She had been on the verge of asking him why a loving God would n to !s! His
children in such a seemingly dispassionate manner - but she suddenly sensed within her
spirit that it was a question to which she already knew the answer. The whole of life was
a n!Inuus sIIs of tests and examinations! Life was like a vast ongoing temporal and
spiritual educational graduation, right on through from kindergarten" to university". From
the cradle to the grave! But it didnt necessarily end there. Even after one had graduated
from the University of Life, one could still go on in another dimension to acquire a Nasters
degree or a Doctorate!
However, many souls never got past the kindergarten stage spiritually, but they
went on to graduate with honours in their secular, carnal lives. This assured them of
worldly wealth, fame and fortune, but when the time came for them leave the world
behind and move on to a higher level of existence, they were spiritually bankrupt. And,
as far as she knew, they had to begin all over again - an again - and agaIn - until they at
last began to awaken from their spiritual torpor. God, the Great Spirit Naster of All, she
now realized, instead of being dispassionate and heartless, must possess an infinite depth
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of patience and mercy to bear with so much human dullness and stupid stubbornness!
She saw now where her IaI task lay. She had to somehow break through this
wordily desire for human achievement, fame and fulfillment that seemed to drive Drew
and Errol in their quest for the !nner Earth, and help them to bring forth and develop their
inner spiritual qualities. Once this was accomplished, all the rest would follow!
Like an arrow of brilliant light, her astral form shot back down toward the portal
vortex. She hoped and prayed that she could in some way break through into their
spiritual minds before their pursuers caught up with them - for she now felt sure that the
reptoid demons were to pose this final and decisive trial by ordeal!
Whether by coincidence or by Divine Ordinance, she arrived back at the exit vortex
chamber ]ust in time to see the three men disgorged out of the central tube of the second
maelstrom. But they were carried up out of it on a great blast of air, for !n nw-In/Ia!
anpIs / their paIanu!s mIg /IIs!, hauling them aloft dangling by their harnesses
high above the milling spiral flow of the great whirlpool, almost to the high, vaulted roof of
the cavern before they released enough air from their chutes to drift down sideways to
land among the encircling outcrops of rock.
Narianne swept in closer to look at them. They were all awake and unhurt, but
clearly astounded at their miraculous deliverance from what had seemed certain death!
Drew, who had slept for most of the rapid but huge ]ourney, was totally bewildered by the
whole thing, and at first, thought they had been returned to their starting-place. How-
ever, Errol who had only slept briefly, assured him that they had indeed traversed some
gargantuan watery wormhole. !t was only after this exchange of words that they realized
their vocal and hearing faculties had been restored. Then, the professor scrambled over
to ]oin them, his canopy bundled up under his arm. He was clearly elated by the amazing
adventure they had ]ust experienced.
Laddies!" he cried, Did ye aiver magIn en yer wIIs! Iams sich a wild ride as
yons tairned oot tae be?" He patted himself all over as if to assure himself that he was
really there in person, and that he hadnt imagined it all. Ah believe Ahd baitter stairt
prepairin mah laictures aboot a thes weel ahaid o time, before Ah stairt tae forgait the
details - As though Ah aiver uI!"
Errol beamed at the professor. You dont need to worry about forgetting, Prof!
Drew and ! will be right there on the goddamn stage with you to ImIn you! !t was a real
DIas!, and thats for sure! What say, bro?" he asked turning to Drew.
Drew grinned back at them both. Well! What could an)D) say after an experi-
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ence like that! ! thought we were all goners for bloody sure, but ! guess we must bear
charmed lives! Anybody got any clue as to where the hell we are?"
Errol looked at his watch. Then he told them how hed believed that for much of
their half-hour ]ourney they had been travelling at above the speed of sound. Nothing
else could account for their hearing-loss during the trip, and if this were true, as he
believed it was, then they had ]ust added over seven hundred-odd miles to their ]ourney.
!n other words, guys, we oughta be almost !nIugn !n gamn Ius!!"
Whilst Drew and the professor reeled at this thought, Narianne, who was hovering
a few feet away, recoiled as if receiving a sudden electric shock at Errols unconscious
blasphemy. So much so that she immediately heaped her own mental pain upon his head.
To her astonishment, Errol flung up his hand to his brow in momentary agony.
WOW!" he yelped as if hed been zapped with a cattle-prod. That HURT! Nust
be some reaction to the stress! ! suddenly got one helluva ... OUCH! There it goes
again! Nust be a touch of migraine!"
But you never suffer from bloody migraine, you silly bast...YIPES!" cried Drew,
also clutching his brow, at the sudden severe bolt of almost electrical pain. Now youll
started m off, too, Erb! Dyou reckon migraines catching?"
Aye!" said Chas, Errol may weel be richt, an yeve baith goat some sairt o reaction
frae yon weird ]airney! !ts nae struck me, thainkfully! Probaibly Ahm ]uist tae bluidy
auld..ATRGHH1" !t was now his turn to suffer.
Narianne held an ethereal hand over her mouth as she smiled with grim satisfaction.
She had discovered a way to communicate with them, even if only at a rudimentary level.
She would try to persevere with it - if only to stop them all from cursing and blaspheming!
At least it was a tremendous step in the right direction towards cleaning up their language
and thought-patterns! She would experiment with various methods of communication,
but for the moment, she was satisfied that her emotions were able to get across to them.
Even !na! could be a useful tool.
Suddenly she felt an icy hand clutching at her spine, and, swinging her insubstantial
form around, she saw the swarm of demons ]ust emerging from the vortex. She was
instantly filled with a sense of high alarm - not so much for herself as for the three men
sitting together on the rocks beside her. At once they all turned as one and stared in the
same direction at the hovering evil swarm whose members were scanning the surround-
ing rocks and crevices for them. Narianne, realizing that they hadnt yet seen them,
concentrated all her spiritual energy upon one word: OOWA! and ]ust as if she had
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shouted it out loud, all three ducked their heads swiftly behind the boulders! `1T WOPKD1
she thought, delightedly.
But it had worked too well, for she suddenly noticed that the whole swarm were
glaring fiercely in her direction and had begun to glide over toward her across the swirling
waters. Evidently, they, too, had picked up her alarm-signal!
For a split-second she thought of fleeing, but changed her mind, and with the briefest
spark of thought, she flitted across to the opposite side of the chamber. !t was clear that
the demons could sense her, if not actually see her, for they immediately changed direc-
tion to follow her. She paused long enough to see the three men scuttling away crabwise
between the rocks, to take refuge in a deep cave mouth. Then she let the swarm follow
her as she flitted instantly from point to point around the great chamber. Finally she
stopped, and perching ethereally upon a tall stone pinnacle, and in response to an power-
ful inner urge, she focussed all of her spiritual force in a mighty burst of withering revul-
sion upon the oncoming swarm.
As she did so, Narianne felt a massive surge of energy blaze within her and shoot
out of her eyes in a blinding burst of pure psychic power. The leading demons in the
swarm were at once incinerated in vivid blue flame, whilst those behind shrieked and
screamed in agony as they fell, charred and smoking, to their deaths in the churning
maelstrom below.
Only two or three of those that had been at the rear of the swarm escaped, and they
fled, wildly flapping upward into the dark shaft overhead, squealing like stuck pigs in their
terror.
Narianne was utterly staggered at the carnage she had wrought upon the fiendish
creatures. She felt as though she had suddenly tapped into a gigantic dynamo of vril
force, and it took several seconds for her spiritual energy to recede to its normal flow.
She felt no qualms or remorse of any kind for the burnt corpses that swirled in the glow-
ing, revolving waters below her. Then she suddenly realized that, during the entire ten or
fifteen seconds of her attack upon the demons, her form had swelled out to gigantic,
ma]estic proportions and her vastly-enhanced aural glow had lit up the entire chamber
with a dazzling blue-white light!
Where had she tapped into such an enormous reservoir of astral energy? The
recollection of its lightning-bolt passage through her spirit both thrilled and frightened
her. She must be very, very careful if she ever felt the need to use it around the guys! !t
had surprised her greatly to simply find that she could give the men paIn when they had
cursed and sworn, but !nIs - WOW! TnIs was sm!nIng eIse aI!g!nI !
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She looked across the chamber to where she had seen Drew and the others dash
into the cave-entrance, and hoped that they hadnt seen her, and the terrible display of
force she had pro]ected. !t would have scared them witless! She flashed across at
thought-speed into the cave, where the three were sitting huddled together in a corner.
Alas! They had wI!nss !n wnI vn!!
Chas was talking animatedly to Drew and Errol, waving his arms about like a crazy
man. Weell" he cried, triumphantly. Did ye ever see anyIn1ng so utterly incredeeble
in all yer born days, laddies! A mighty avenging Angel o the Laird layin a those devils low
in one gey grand bolt o lightnen! Praise be tae Goad, ma mannies, for He saved us frae
cairtain deeth the day! What a glorious sicht et was!"
Drew sat staring back at him as if in shock. But, mate!" he said in an awed tone,
Didnt you see her /a! ! know she was hard to look at in all that blaze of light, but !d
swear she looked a dead ringer of MaIIann! How could a man see his girl suddenly grow
up to such a gigantic size? !t was the most wonderful thing ! ever saw in my life! ! guess
Narianne really s look like an angel, after all! ! !nugn! she did first time ! clapped eyes
on her! But youre dead right, Chas, we really aI on the side of the angels, and God mus!
be with us! Just like Joan told me!"
Now it was Errols turn to speak. What can ! say that you guys havent said already!
!t was absolutely out of this world! And, Heyl - Yeah, Drew, the angel I kinda look very
like Narianne! - The only trouble is, buddy, that angeIs aI aII guys, like you and !! No!
! n! mean we look like angels, Drew!" He laughed as Drew lunged at him with a playful
hay-maker. ! guess to me, he looked like the 5IaIue o1 I1erIy - Oh, Yeahl ! know
sns supposed to be a wman too, but .."
Narianne retired from their presence smiling gladly at the clearly excellent effect the
scene had had on the mens morale. They were certainly very far from being frightened
by her appearance during the battle or by the blinding destruction of the reptilian horde.
Nor did she worry now that Drew might have identified her. She was thankful Errol had
headed him off that idea by pointing out the maInss of angels. His comparison of her
to an angel, however, was both flattering and a little worrying, too. She ]ust hoped Gods
IaI and masuIIn angels would understand!
However, as she pondered her next move, she realized that this was by no means
the end of their trial - or even the DgInnIng of it! Doubtless, there were other, possibly
even more diabolical emissaries of Hell awaiting them between their current location and
the surface, and she could only hope that they - and she - would be up to snuff when they
met them! Perhaps she could go ahead and spy out the lay of the land , as it were, and
see what horrors lay in store for these three intrepid souls?
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She would have to figure out how she might conceal her presence from the foe.
Now that she had begun to realize her vast, untapped psychic potential, she felt far more
unafraid of these creatures of Satans dark world. Her recent experience of becoming a
spiritual giantess to vanquish their horde of hellish followers, indicated to her that she
could change at will like a chameleon, into anything she chose to be. This would be the
key that would let her enter into whatever stronghold the hadean creatures might occupy!
However, she had to bear in mind that two or three of the reptilian ghouls na survived to
escape into the darkness above. So if they were kin to whatever minions of Satan dwelled
there, they would have hastened to forewarn them of her possible advent and they would
now be watching out for her. She had no idea what monstrous evil entities ruled over
them, or if she would even be able to fight them. But this was something she must face
up to when they - or I! - confronted her. !n the meantime, it was enough for her to enter
their lair and see what foul horrors her friends would have to battle against - and nquI!
She was ]ust about to launch herself upwards into the stygian gloom overhead,
when she sensed another psychic presence beginning to materialize beside her. At first
she thought it might have been one of their foes but as the little ball of energy began to
swell and glow with a blue-white light she hoped it might perhaps be her mysterious
giants now returning, after a change of heart, to help her in the inevitable clash that
surely lay ahead. But as the form grew rapidly larger she recognized its familiar features.
!t was dear, sweet Hazel!
But what a I//In! Hazel to the one who had fled so timidly from their last encoun-
ter with the reptilians! This new spirit of Hazel was as bold and staunchly fearless as
herself. She could feel the strength and confidence radiating forth from Hazels astral form
like the powerful radiation of a blazing star! Just how this transformation could have
occurred, she had no idea - unIss this was Tna! O!nI" to whom the elder of the giants
had referred? One glance into Hazels glowing blue eyes confirmed that her sudden,
inspired con]ecture was correct.
He came and visited me as ! slept," said Hazels new and strong voice, deep inside
her consciousness, and he told me that ! would be transfigured and filled with power if !
was prepared to come and help you fight for our men! So here ! am, Narianne! ! know
what you intend to do, and would be honoured to go with you!"
And ! am honoured to have you accompany me!" replied Narianne in the same way,
flashing a brilliant smile of gratitude at her friend.
And thus, the two great Warriors of Light flew upward to face the unknown waiting
Powers of !nner Darkness together. Unknown, because at the first warning of the ap-
proach of a formidable gigantic Being of Light, their enemies had cast an even darker and
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almost impenetrable black mist in their path, a thick pall of uncanny obscurity that shrouded
their foul thoughts as well as it cloaked the psychical emanations of their evil kingdom.
* * *
Down below, unaware of the close presence of the astral forms of the two young
women they loved, Drew and Errol planned their next move. Had they know of the girls
grim mission to reconnoiter the dark forces of evil that were massing against them, they
might have changed their plans radically. But since !gnorance is Bliss, they continued in
their folly of assumed Wisdom. They sat and pondered how they might climb out of this
vast tomb of a chamber, with its eternally-swirling maelstrom of gleaming waters casting
ghostly pallid reflections upon its ]agged overhanging rocks. They lacked most of the
gear they had begun with, especially since that last plundering raid by the reptilians on
their ledge at the other end of this - this - wImnI of a vortex. All they possessed now
were their parachutes and two worst-for-wear backpacks, containing a very few trifling
comforts.
Oh! And of course, their IIvs1 Nustnt forget !na!1 But what good was that to
them, and how long would their lives continue if they were doomed to be trapped in this
dismally damp and gloomy abyss? Fortunately, it wouldnt be for long!
What little sustenance they had left would last them perhaps a week or ten days,
and then - they ]oked - theyd have to draw lots as to whod have to sacrifice himself to
feed the others! Drew and Errol looked across speculatively at Chas, and Drew slid his
hunting knife out of its sheath, licked his lips and said how much he anticipated the flavour
of a nice ]uicy and very rare 5!!Isn Iump s!aK!
Chas played along with their little charade, and eyed each of them equally specula-
tively. Aye! Ahve heard that Aus!IaIIan D/ is verra much in demand nooadays, so etll
be enterestin tae see ef et tastes hairf as grand as ets claimed tae be!" he grinned at
Drew. Ocourse, thats noat tae underplay yon fine grain-fed YanK T-Dn s!aKs,
either!" he beamed at Errol. Ah can but hope we hae the means tae build some soart of
a barbecue, and the means tae licht et, too!"
However, they soon tired of this little interplay of rather grim black-humour, and
went back to thinking of a way to escape upwards.
As they stared up overhead, it looked a forlorn hope indeed. They only had the
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short lengths of rope from the car-cover chutes left in the two packs, and even when
knotted together, the twelve nine-foot lengths would extend to less than eighty-four feet.
They uI attempt climbing DaI-nan, of course. both Drew and Errol had done
plenty of that in their leisure hours around some of the roughest Scottish highland crags.
But Chas was the unknown quantity here. True, he possessed an indomitable spirit, but,
at his age, did he have the required physical endurance such a sustained and terrible
climb would entail?
No! There had to be some alternative they hadnt yet considered. Drew wished
that hed brought along his silly weather-balloons and the little cylinders of helium. At
least if n of them could have floated up into the upper reaches of the chamber roof, he
might then have been able to lower their makeshift rope on to one of the upthrusting
]utting spurs of rock that protruded out over the maelstrom.
Then, if the other two couldve climbed such a spur, they might be able to climb the
rope up into the craggy ceiling of the cave, and maybe find an aperture through it some-
where. At least I! would have been a s!aI!! But, alas, hed stupidly abandoned the
balloons -and their gas-cylinders - so they could /Ig! that idea!
!t was then - as he gazed up at the largest spur of ]utting rock - that he remembered
how they had all but collided with it, as they were blown out of the vortex by the ]et
stream of air it had sucked in through from its further end. Theyd been lucky their
canopies hadnt snagged on the spur. Fortunately, they had not, but they na all been
compelled to release air from the cells of their skydiving-chutes in order to avoid DIng
DIwn IIgn! up agaIns! !n )agg I/ of the huge chamber! Then, of course, theyd
steered their chutes out of the strong stream of upflung air, and off to the side of the
cavern, in order to land well away from the whirlpool.
But what if - ]ust wnaI 11 - they could all climb out on to the spur of pro]ecting rock,
open their chutes, and allow the ]et stream to II/! !nm IIgn! up into the roof? !t was
worth a shot! An)!nIng was better that simply sitting down here, tossing in the towel, and
waiting for a slow death from starvation! Theyd struck similar situations before and got
away with far more crackbrained ideas than this! He at once set about explaining his wild
concept to the others. After all, it was aII !n) na to fly with!
!t took them over two hours of hard nail-tearing muscle-wrenching effort to get up
to the level of the out-thrusting stone spur, and then they found that it was almost like a
narrow blade in places along its upper edge. Fortunately, the straps and metal crotch-
rings of their harnesses prevented them from being severely scraped and abraded be-
tween the legs. They managed eventually to shuffle in a straddling, sitting position across
these parts, despite two of them being also encumbered by their back packs, and finally
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reached a narrow, flattened section of the upper surface, almost directly above the central
throat of the maelstrom, a hundred feet below.
They sat and rested here for a few moments, freeing their parachutes from their
velcro containers and struggling out of their backpacks - which now had to be hooked onto
their harness crotch-rings again - before attempting to rise warily to their feet. The
upward draught of air from the vortex was quite powerful here, and they were greatly
worried about being blown off their fearsome stone perch. However, Drew assured them
that if such a thing wI to happen, and any of them I get dislodged, their chute would
immediately fill with the rising air and lift them upwards. !n which case, they were to grab
on to whatever hand-holds they could find among the dangling stalactites that hung from
the chamber ceiling, and await the arrival of the others to hopefully assist them to a more
secure position.
!t was certainly terrifying to look down from the vertiginous spur directly into that
dread aperture beneath, but as Drew had pointed out, now that their chutes were freed
from their packs, none of them was likely to fall. They could only be II/! up! This
knowledge gave them all the necessary faith in the feasibility of the exercise, and when
Drew finally gave them the Pa) signal they stood up in a row, each clasping their
bunched canopies to their chests, and two of them gripping their backpacks between their
boots.
On1 - Tw1 - THREE! yelled Drew, and, as one man, they all threw up their
parachute-canopies, and watched them, with intense relief, immediately billow out with
the rising air. Then they were all plucked off the ledge as if by a giant hand, and heaved
sharply upwards towards the ]agged, inverted pinnacles of the roof. Within seconds they
were among the dangling stalactite daggers of stone, and, had they not been wearing
their helmets, they might have been brained by the glancing blows they all received
against them. However, by some miracle of chance, they all survived without in]ury,
beyond being mildly dazed. Even their newly-replenished headlamps survived the im-
pacts more or less intact, although one of Chass had its glass broken. Fortunately, the
bulb remained in one piece and working.
Now came the tricky bit. Theyd all managed to get firm purchases upon the hang-
ing barbs of stone and their chutes helped secure them somewhat by having become
entangled among them. For the moment they could rest in relative safety whilst looking
up and around them for a better position. Off to one side of where they now clung, Drew
saw a shelving underhang of rock shaped like a giant scoop or dustpan. !f they could
work their way across to !na!, he shouted to his friends, it looked as if they would be able
to rest much more easily on its wide and deep-looking shelf. Then they could use it as a
safe temporary base while they searched for a likely-looking hole or fissure in the ceiling
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around it.
Errol and Chas shouted back their agreement, and then began to inch their ways up
their respective stalactites until they were into the very thick of them. This made it easier
to wriggle and worm their way in between the rough upper sections, taking care to pause
every now and again and pull their ]umbled chutes awkwardly along behind them. Drew
even considered leaving the parachutes there, but somehow, he was loathe to part with
them. They might ]ust come in handy yet again! The backpacks were also a terrible
impediment, but they dared not let them go, instead they grimly struggled on foot by
back-breaking foot, towards the security of the shelving underhang.
Errol was the first to get a hand, then an elbow, over its edge, and with some help
from Drew, who took up the weight of his dangling backpack, he finally got a knee over it
too, and in one great burst of effort, he dragged himself completely up and onto it. He
then hauled up his pack, and lay flat on his back for a moment totally out of breath and
energy. After recovering somewhat, he hung his head and arms down over the edge
again to help Drew, who was waiting below. !n another minute, Drew was also up on the
ledge with him. There now only remained Chas to be helped to safety. But as Drew had
anticipated, Chass years werent working in his favour, and he was already displaying
distressing signs of severe physical strain and weakness. !n the end, Drew, now unen-
cumbered by his backpack and harness, had to climb wearily out again and almost Iag
Chas, by sheer brute force and some final help from Errol, up and over into their eagles-
nest eyrie. After this superhuman effort, Drew collapsed beside Chas, trembling with
utter weakness. Then both of them succumbed to their weariness and fell deeply asleep.
Errol, however, whod had the chance to recover much of his strength and vitality,
sat watching over them. Not that he anticipated any demonic intrusion, even in such a
God-forsaken place as this, but he was worried about the Prof, who had endured an ordeal
that not very many guys of his risky age could have survived without sustaining a heart-
attack or a stroke. Fortunately, the dear old guy seemed to be breathing easily now, and
would probably wake up groaning about the aches and pains in his ]oints and his back -
rather than his heart!
He now turned his attention to their inverted cave, which, by his helmet lights,
resembled the interior of an open-ended box or even an inverted air-scoop like one saw
on some racing cars. What was even more interesting was that it actually seemed to be
doing ]ust that! 5pIng up aII1 How the heck could this D? !t was then that he
figured out that the air from below was actually s!III IIsIng from the vortex wormhole and
blowing vI the three of them, back to the rear-end of the scooplike underhang - which
meant that it was g!!Ing u! a! !n !nI n somewhere!
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Excited now, Errol scrambled toward the rear of the underhang, and tilted his head-
lamps up into the darkness before him. The end of their boxlike refuge sloped upwards
and as he raised his head even higher the edge of the slope gave onto a region of pitch
blackness, without his lamp beams reflecting off any wall or ceiling! He clambered up the
rough slope and stood upright near its top. He was definitely in some sort of open space!
As he turned his head to left and right, his helmet-lamps shone upon rocky walls around
ten feet or so on either side of him, but when he tilted his head backwards, their rays were
almost lost in the darkness overhead. He was ]ust able to discern a faint reflection of
stone high above him. A giant passageway or corridor! A similar head-tilting look at the
floor of the passage showed that it sloped downhill before him and upnIII behind him. He
turned and stared uphill.
YE5!" he told himself, triumphantly. Way Io go, ErroI, oId uddy!"
By this time, The two mighty Light Warriors, Narianne and Hazel, had encountered
the barrier of inky black mist exhaled by the monstrous denizens of the lower reaches of
the inner crust. They had already realized that this zone they now found themselves in
could only be considered as Hell itself. They had though the region beneath the volcano
to be such to begin with, but now they knew better. That comparatively innocuous sub-
terranean region had only been merely the pastoral outskirts - the garden suburbs", as it
were, of the infernal place itself.
But now the darkly evil and viciously feral atmosphere of this awful place of deep,
brooding malignance made their original point of entry into the earths crust seem like an
underground holiday resort by comparison! They could sense the thought-emanations of
total malevolence rolling out in waves through the seemingly impenetrable fog of dark-
ness. The overpowering air of concentrated vileness was so tangible that it seeped into
their spiritual minds.
`How, in the Name of all that was Holy could the trio of navely-unwitting men ps-
sIDI) fight their way through this totally and literally G-/IsaKn, merciless sink of iniq-
uity? The thought flashed unbidden through Nariannes psyche. Ànd wn) should they
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n to?
Then as she wondered how such a negative thought could have entered her mind,
she sensed in her mind the same persuasive thought-voice reminding her of the old adage
concerning the man dying of an agonizing cancer who asked Why M, Lord?" To which
the aIIg pitiless answer had been Why NOT?" Suddenly she realized she was coming
under spiritual attack by some extremely powerful diabolic source that lay beyond the
miasma of freezing black mist. Hazel, too, was sensing the same thing. !t was not a
direct, frontal attack of Darkness versus Light, it was a much more subtle attempt to
undermine her spiritual resolve.
This was the same sort of crafty sowing of IasnaDI uD! to which Eve had
succumbed in Eden when the archfiend, Satan, himself in his original reptilian guise asked
her: "Ha!n God reaIIy said thou shalt not eat of !nIs Tree?" And, later, when the same
archfiend tried to get Jesus to cast himself down from the highest pinnacle of the temple,
to pIv that Gods angels reaIIy wouId DaI nIm up Is! n asn nIs /! agaIns! a
s!n", as the Bible claimed, and thus save him from death. Jesus had responded in like
manner by telling Satan: !t is also written that `Thou shalt not !mp! the Lord thy God!"
Narianne immediately responded to the original satanically-inspired question con-
cerning why the men should n to face the Powers of Darkness, by flashing out the
reply: Because they need to be shown that neither Satan nor his minions are invincible.
`Res1sI Ine deV1I, and ne w1II 1Iee 1rom you!"
As she boomed out this powerful thought from her mind, she felt that it had regis-
tered with a massive impact, not only upon her intended targets, but also upon Hazel by
her side, who had not yet learned many such powerful truths. She sensed the sudden
strengthening in Hazels spiritual sinews, and she added those great words from the Twenty-
Third Psalm: Ya, !nugn 1 waIK !nIugn !n VaII) / Tn 5naw / Da!n, T w1II 1ear
no eV1I, /I Tnu aI! wI!n m" to strengthen her even further. And, although Narianne
was not immediately aware of it, her unspoken but spiritually-deafening shout registered
deeply within the subconscious minds of the three men whom she and Hazel were her to
defend.
Narianne and Hazel now faced toward the wall of black fog that hid their enemies.
Together they each drew a huge breath of ethereal spiritual power and together they
blasted it forth forcefully through their tightly-pursed astral lips
At once, a wide gap was cleared through the barrier of inky mist, and the remaining
black miasma swiftly evaporated away as they sped fearlessly forward into the breach.
The natural darkness meant nothing to them, for they saw through incorporeal eyes and
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shed their own ethereal light before them as they went.
Thus they were able to see the many dark, misshapen demonic forms that scattered
in terror before them, to vanish into the great warren of stinking tunnels and vast, noi-
some caverns that led down into the heart of Hell itself! The way ahead now lay open
and clear, had they wished to go on up to the surface, but they had a task and a duty to
fulfil for their friends. To clear and guard the way, so that they might pass through
unmolested.
But alas, even such powerful spiritual warriors as these did not possess the vast
omnipotence of the Greatest Spirit of All, so, for the moment, they were unaware that the
three men had already discovered another path. One that was at that very moment
leading them directly into the midst of the demonic lair!
* * *
After his wonderful discovery of the long, upward sloping corridor, Errol had found it
impossible to contain himself in patience until Drew and Chas awoke of their own volition.
!nstead he had gone back down and shaken Drew into wakefulness. Drew had naturally
been more than a little irritated to be so rudely and suddenly roused from his blissful
slumber. But after finally taking in Errols almost incoherently excited piece of news, he
soon came fully to his senses, and struggled painfully to his feet. !n so doing, he inad-
vertently trod upon Chass outstretched hand and woke him also, with a painful start.
What en the name o Goads going oan?" cried the professor, nursing his trampled
fingers. Ah feel like Ahve ]oost been traimpled by a haird o bluidy elephants!" he moaned,
unaware of the fact that hed ]ust blasphemed and cursed in the same sentence. He was
fortunate indeed that Narianne hadnt been nearby, at the time, or he would have been
nursing an aching head as well!
Come on, Chas!" Drew said without apology, Stir your blooming s!umps, mate!
Errols found us a wa) u! of this hole!"
A second or two later, all three were staring happily up and down the dark passage
as far as their helmet-lamps would permit.
Oh, you little beauty! Bloody ripper, Errol, old son!" said Drew, almost beside
himself with ]oy. This is ]ust what the bloody doctor ordered, mate! And unless !m a total
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bloody idiot, !na!s the way out!" He pointed along the upward slope of the passage.
You know what, fellers?" he chortled, in his old high spirits once more, ! reckon were
almost bloody nm an ns!"
!t took them only a few minutes to retrieve their gear from their resting place, and
for them to dig their hand-torches out of the two backpacks, but as they did so, Drew
suddenly realized they nan! a!n since before they had parachuted down into the other
end of the vortex! Hang on a tick, fellers!" he said. No point in us going off at half-cock,
we might still have a fair old hike in front of us yet! What say we have a decent sort of a
feed before we leave? At least, nobodys going to ]ump us down here are they? Well
probably not get much of a chance to eat in comfort once we set off up that passageway.
Lets have a whole ration-pack apiece for once, eh? Were going to need as much strength
as we can take on board for whats facing us!" He had no idea, of course, ]ust how pro-
phetic his words were to turn out!
They sat around munching appreciatively on their Survival rations, and washing
them down with the sparkling water theyd taken from the subterranean river in the
daylit" cavern theyd found, two days before. Do you IaII) think that were that close to
the interior, Drew?" asked Errol, trying hard not to pinch himself to find out if he was
dreaming or not.
Nate!" said Drew, with a great big, confident grin, !d bet my bloody boots on it!
We must be almost right sIap-Dang n the eight-hundred-mile mark even as we speak!
So, unless all the great Hollow Earthers" we ever heard of, or read about, are way off the
mark, were virtually there!"
Always proveedin yer Hoallow Airth !uaII) xs!s, o course, mah wee mannies!"
remarked Chas, with more than a dash of irony. But before Drew could explode into
uproar, he hastily added: Nind ye - ef et does tairn oot tae be there - Ahll be the fairst
tae congratulate ye baith oan et!"
Yair!" said Drew darkly. And !ll see that you do it on the City Hall steps in bloody
Brisbane! And with all the bloody worlds news-cameras rolling too, mate!"
However, Errol, who had almost bolted his own rations down in his anxiety to be off,
wondered back and forth like a lost dog. Gee, you guys!" he complained irritably. ! wish
youd get you goddamn asses into gear! Were losing precious time here while you sit
flapping your gums! How much longer you gonna be?"
Drew threw down his empty ration pack and wiped his hands down the sides of his
coverall pants. All done, Errol, my old son! No need to get your bowels in a knot. Give
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me a hand up with this pack and !ll be right behind you, mate! Yu ready, Chas?"
The professor was already struggling to his feet, groaning at the pains in his aching
]oints. Lead on, NacDuff!" said he. !ll follow fairst"- as the !rishman said!"
And so they cheerfully tramped off up the great dark corridor, watching hopefully for
the first glimpse of light at its end.
However, after about a half hour, Errol, who had been in the lead, slowed the others
to a stop. Notice anything strange?" he asked of Drew. And when Drew said he hadnt
particularly, why? Errol went on: The goddamn tunnels started gIng wn agaIn!"
Drew and Chas immediately began flashing their torches back and forth, behind and
in front, and they saw to their dismay that Errol was right! The corridor was going
downhill! However, Drew who always chose the optimistic view, felt that it was maybe
]ust one of those things that happen even on ordinary roads or paths out on the surface.
The Ups and the Downs! There was no point going back, anyhow, as they already knew
it went downhill the other way. We might as well ]ust keep going," he said. We have to
come out somewhere eventually!"
Chas muttered something darkly about `Nr. Nacabre. To which remark Errol replied,
"! dont know who the Dickens youre talking about, Prof!" They all had a good laugh and
continued their way downwards.
But another hour further down, theyd completely lost their sense of humour.
The corridor had continued to trend downwards, and they were all rapidly growing
totally disheartened. Also, they had begun to notice several disturbing things. A rather
unpleasant smell had begun to pervade the hitherto reasonably fresh air, and several
times now, they had spotted vague flitting movements ]ust on the limit of their torch-
beams. Chas believed that they were probably bats, disturbed by their lights, but Drew
and Errol both felt that it might be something a bit more sinister than mere bats. Any-
how, who was to know if there were any such !nIngs as bats on the inner surface? They
might be moving into a totally alien environment to that outer crust they had left behind?
Also they had begun to notice occasional dark entrances along the corridor walls at
strangely regular intervals, far more so than one would normally find in a natural cave
system.
Chas commented: Nan! Ets amost like walkin doon the main street of a desairted
village or toon, en the sma hoors o the morning when naebodys aboot - not even the
moon! Even doon tae the a!s and Ia!s scutterin aboot en the dairk! Aye! An the bluidy
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Da!s ana!"
Errol had noticed the latter !nIngs for himself. After his nasty encounter with that
large reptilian thing that had bitten him that time in the volcanos lava-chamber, he had
been especially wary of anything that su!!I aD! in the dark. And he had seen a
good many smallish shapes flitting around both on the floor and the walls, as well as
overhead, down !nIs corridor! One thing was for sure. They wIn! goddamn cats, rats
I bats! They were a tad ! DIg for any of these! He ]ust hoped they were simply the
product of his fertile imagination! OnI) !nIs an n!nIng mI1 as dear old Edgar Allan
Poe said in Tn Pavn! Errol had a great affinity with Poe!
As they continued on their dismal gloomy way. Drew suddenly stopped. Hey! What
the hell is that?" he gasped. He backed up a little and pointed down one of the side
passages. The other looked too. At its farther end, there was a faint reddish glow which
seemed to emanate from another passage, and as they watched, they saw a curious
horned figure, wearing what appeared to be a short semitransparent cape, momentarily
silhouetted against the glow. Then it seemed to turn sideways and disappear, but not
before it had looked back in their direction and waved a beckoning arm!
Well! !ll be blowed!" said Drew, consumed with curiosity. Did you fellers see that?
Looked ]ust like a bloke in some sort of bloody cloak waving at us!"
Aye, Ah saw, him alricht!" said the professor grimly. An he looked ]oost like AuI
NIK, hemsailf tae me! Ah wouldnae gand doon yon tunnel if ye bluidy paid me! Ahve
goat tae admit, Andrae, Ahm no happy aboot this parteculair veceenity!"
Errol didnt look too happy either. !f you wanna go take a peek, Drew, be my guest,
bro, but ]ust leave me out of it! ! guess !m with the Prof, buddy!"
Drew stared at them both in disbelief. Ny Word!" he said with a faint sneer. Youre
like a couple of frightened schoolgirls! Whos gonna try anything on if we go in there
waving !ns around?" He produced his revolver from the pocket of his combat ]acket.
They seemed effective enough the last time we used èm, fellers, so whats to be chicken
about?
Anyhow," he continued. Nobodys twisting your arms, !m going on my own if your
too scared!" And with that, he turned on his heel and vanished into the passage. The
other two, watched him from around the corner of the tunnel entrance as he made his
way cautiously, his figure silhouetted blackly against the distant reddish glow, toward its
source. At the far end they saw him turn sideways toward a brighter red light source, his
revolver at the ready and an amazed look on his face, then he crept forward and out of
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their view.
A moment later they heard the echoing explosion of a shot being fired, followed a
second later by another. Then there came the sound of some sort of noisy altercation or
struggle, and then followed - deadly sIIn.
Errol stared down at Chas, his face a frozen mask of horror. what the hell couldve
happened to Drew?" he gasped in a barely audible whisper.
Chas stared back at him in equal consternation. Ah havenae a bluidy clue, Errol,
but Ah canna stond by while Andraes in trouble! Ah couldnae live wi mahsailf if hes got
himsailf killed because Ah was tae much o a scaredy-cat tae gang aloang with him!"
Then he drew his own revolver and beckoning to Errol to do likewise, he slipped softly into
the threatening, redly-glowing tunnel.
Errol had little option but to follow the old guys lead. He felt exactly the same.
What was it the three musketeers used to holler? On /I AII - AII /I On?"
They crept catlike along the fearsome tunnel toward the ominous red glow, with
many terrible misgivings. Theyd been talking about Hell earlier and it looked as if their
worst fears were coming true! Errol in particular, had suddenly recalled Dores illustra-
tions for Dantes 1n/In with appalling clarity, in his minds eye, and would not have
been surprised to find himself confronted by one of those fearful scenes depicting naked
souls being horribly tormented by black-winged demons, amid red-hot coals and clouds of
sulphuric smoke, or grappling with writhing heaps of poisonous snakes, or ... SSSSHH!
Tn) wI naII) !nI1
Chas was the first to glance through the lighted aperture that opened in the side
wall near the tunnels dead end. A look of horrified disbelief fell across his redly-lit fea-
tures, and Errol then leaned out behind him to see what had terrified him so much. What
he saw was, if anything, even worse than he had expected.
He found himself staring down into a large chamber, not unlike the one into which
theyd emerged out of the vortex, but instead of a great revolving maelstrom of
Twisting tumultuous water, he found himself staring at a river of what at first ap-
peared to be molten orange-red lava that flowed rapidly across the chambers further
side. But when he saw that the entire cavern was lit by sulphurous red-orange torches in
brackets around its walls, he realized that he was seeing their reflections in a turbulent,
roiling stream of water, which appeared to emerge from a tunnel to his right and ran
swiftly in a away into a corresponding tunnel to his left.
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Jut inside the caverns opening, a rough series of smooth stones formed a sort of
staircase down to its floor, which was composed largely of glittering orange silica sand.
And in the centre of the natural arena thus formed, stood a group of red sandstone rocks,
set in a circle with one large flat rock in its centre like a table or an altar, and with a large
carved stone throne at one end Awful fiendish figures sat or crouched upon each of the
encircling rocks, whilst to one side Drew knelt in the sand, with a similar demonic creature
holding each of his arms stiffly backward in a rigid iron grasp so that his head hung
forward before the thronelike seat.
However, upon the altar-like stone there lay another demon, its body oozing blood,
and Drews revolver lay upon one corner of the same rock altar.
The whole terrible scene looked ]ust like some sort of hellish courtroom, with Drew
being held like the accused killer, and his victim lying displayed as Exhibit A" across the
courtroom table, and Drews revolver as Exhibit B"!
However, these particular demons were unlike the reptilians they had fought against
previously, for they were all much more vIIIsn-looking creatures. They possessed knobby
skulls with large sharp-pointed horns pro]ecting from the foreheads above the eyes, and
they also possessed !aIIs - of the kind classically associated with the Devil - in that they
were long and came to an Ace-of-Spades" spatula spearpoint! Their bodies and skulls
wI, however, covered with scales, and their lower legs were covered with thick coarse
hair. However, their hands and feet were decidedly reptilian, in that each hand and foot
terminated in !nI finger and toe digits plus a shorter thumb" instead of the human five.
But for all intents and purposes, they so closely resembled the classic demons as
portrayed by many artists and stonecarvers of mediaeval times, that Chass premonitions
regarding AuI NIK or Satan himself seemed to have proved correct!
As they crouched in the stone doorway to the great hall-like chamber wondering
what they should do next, a loud hearty voice called out to them from the group below.
Good-day to you, gentlemen! Please enter! You are very welcome to bear witness to the
trial of this very foolish fellow who has ]ust killed one of my valued subordinates! Perhaps
one of you might be so kind as to represent him as his legal council, before we behead
him?"
They stared around the group of demonic entities to see which was the speaker, but
since the demons were all looking up toward the large throne, it soon became evident
that the speaker was actually sitting upon it! This came as rather a violent shock to Errol
and Chas, who only a moment before had seen it unoccupied!
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They found themselves being drawn forward as if by a magnet into the orange
sanded arena, and down the flat stone steps worn smooth by aeons of bare foot traffic. As
they finally found themselves approaching the hideous courtroom, they discovered a vast
concourse of assorted fiendish creatures of many kinds, all congregated at some distance
away from and around the central tableau, like a huge expectant audience awaiting the
beginning of some grand ceremony.
Then they finally saw the occupant of the gigantic throne, which had obviously been
carved from a single large sandstone block. !t was a figure they all Knw !IIIDI) wII.
WII", because they had seen his images many times throughout their lives in thousands
of books and films - and especially in religious works. TIIIDI)", because he was the
archtypical image of the very Pr1nce / aII !n mns nImsI/, even down to the red-
suited appearance and the classic trident pitchfork. They could no longer doubt Chass
presentiment. TI was 5aIan n1mseI1!
They were thunderstruck and rooted to the spot by wave upon crashing wave of
sheer, naked, paralyzing horror, which sluiced over them like some vast heart-stopping
tsunami of dread! Chas could feel his heart trying to scramble up into his throat as he
fought to stave off the massive coronary that seemed about to engulf him. !t had always
been his greatest fear, and now, as some curiously-detached part of his mind, kept telling
him in the words of Job: For Ine In1ng InaI T mosI greaIIy 1eared 1s come upon
me1 And yet, despite the tremendous crushing and wrenching pain that was now
assailing his heart, Chas stood his ground - even before Satan himself!
The Prince of Darkness was now taunting him, sprawling in his heavy throne, with
one leg dangled over an arm of the seat, and twirling his trident playfully between his
hands, his impeccably curling-moustached and pointy-beard saturnine features wreathed
in a vicious sadistic smile.
Well!" cried the Demon King, arching his evil vee-shaped black eyebrows in sur-
prise. "We seem to have a damned Christian in our midst! A mealymouthed little Bible-
thumper! Fancy having the temerity to quote the blasted Bible at me - and right in the
middle of a ]olly good heart-attack, too! Hows it going incidentally, Charles?" he asked in
a matter-of-fact tone. The pain R1II1ng you is it? No n! )!, eh? Going to give me a good
run for my money, eh?" He sat back and laughed out loud in a great hideous gale of
malevolent mirth.
Chas suddenly realized that the monster was IaIng nIs mIn - and that he was the
author of his agony. Suddenly another great Bible phrase blazed up in the forefront of the
old Scots brain - one hed heard only recently: Res1sI Ine OeV1I, and ne w1II 1Iee 1rom
you! He focussed all of his attention upon that single thought and strove to ignore the
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thunderous clamour of his madly-leaping heart within his chest. Despite his enormous
fear and pain, he turned his back and faced away from Satan.
The monstrous demon upon the throne went wild with fury, and he cursed Chas
with all the malevolence he could fling at him, bolts of purple lightning struck the ground
all around the doughty Scot, filling the air with the fetid odor of pure evil, but he refused
to flinch or run. His back felt as though he were being lashed with an electric barbed-wire
whip and he could feel the hot blood running down his back and between his buttocks,
and on down his legs. But still he stood his ground and resisted with his teeth firmly
clenched. Strangely, he discovered that the pain around his heart had dulled to quite a
bearable level, and he began to feel elated within his spirit.
Now to Errols and Drews amazement, he lifted his face upward toward the roof of
the cavern, and a curious loud, tuneless hum erupted from his mouth, at first Errol thought
Chas had finally lost his mind - until he - and Drew in particular - recognized it as that
wonderful old song that had been sung at his fathers funeral service: Amaz1ng Grace!
Suddenly Satan himself was shrieking, and clasping his cruelly-taloned and be]ew-
eled hands over his ears. STOP ITl" he roared in all their minds, as if !nII words were
piercing his wn mind. STOP IT, AT ONCEl"
But still Chas persisted, and he was ]oined now by Errol. And even by Drew, whose
captors had pushed him forward by his backward-twisted arms until his face was almost
buried in the orange sand. Together they bellowed out the words of that great hymn,
written by an x-sIvan! / 5a!an, who had once been a dealer in African slaves and the
master of slave-ship - John Newton. He had been a vicious, cruel man, until he underwent
a sudden marvelous and miraculous conversion to Christianity and wrote that selfsame
beautiful song, among many others, as one of his very first acts of atonement for all the
human misery he had caused..
Tna! sav a wI!n IIK m. 1 n was Is!, Du! nw am /un.was DIIn, Du!
nw 1 s.1 Twas GIa !na! !augn! m) naI! ! /aI, an GIa m) /aIs IIIv.
They were all singing away heartily at the tops of their voices now and the demons were
backing away in terror. The two who had held Drews arms in such an agonizing lock,
suddenly released him and backed away, gibbering, their hands over their ears, ]ust like
their hellish master... The great concourse of minor creatures of evil began to scramble
squealing out through the caverns various exits
Then came a blinding flash of purple-mauve light and an overpowering stench of
pure sulphurised hydrogen, and the terrible sprawling figure upon the throne vanished in
an instant from before their astounded eyes. With equal suddenness, a dazzling blue-
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white radiance began to fill the huge cavern, causing the orange red brands to gutter and
go out, and the rest of the demon counselors to flee. The three men saw again that great
angelic vision they had once before beheld in the maelstrom chamber... But this time
there were Iwo gigantic angels of Light! One that resembled Marianne and the other
who resembled Hazel!
!ncredible as this itself seemed, the three were also able to discern in the back-
ground behind the two mighty angelic figures, and partially obscured by their brilliant
glow, the group of angelic beings who had protected them on the ledges in their original
descent to the first maelstrom or wormhole. At least they were similar if not the same.
They hovered in a row as if they were ]udges, almost dispassionately assessing the whole
scene.
But Drew and Errol only had eyes for these two gigantic gloriously radiant figures
that stood before them. For once, both of them were smitten speechless. Then they
heard the voices of the two huge angels booming in unison inside their minds.
Go! Leave this place! What you have ]ust witnessed was trickery of the senses!
Lucifer was ever a trickster! You have not yet seen him as he now is. Pray that you never
will! What you saw and heard here was merely the fabrication of an image that lay within
your own minds, perpetrated by his servants to turn you away from your avowed quest.
Now you must continue with it - or die in the attempt - for you cannot retrace your steps!
You must strive ever upward if you are to attain your goal.
You need only one weapon in this evil place - the two-edged sword of faith and
truth. Let your weapon be as that of !nIs one!" Here they indicated the professor who had
fallen to his knees in the orange sand before them, muttering in a pious whisper, his
hands clasped before him in an attitude of prayer. Arise, brave heart!" called the voices.
Worship only Him who created you - we are but spirits such as you are, and must not be
praised! You are an example to us all!"
Slowly, and tremulously the old professor struggled to his feet, where he stood
swaying like a bush in the breeze, weak from his ordeal and the pent-up emotion he now
felt, but within his spirit he felt wonderfully elated.
Now we must leave you again," boomed the twin voices to them all, but we leave
you with this watchword - EXCELSIOR! And as you go, search your own minds and
souls, for all the answers to your cares and doubts are there to be discovered! Farewell,
dearly beloved ones!"
And, steadily, the two giant figures began to shimmer and shrink, until they final
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became two small balls of intense bluish light. Then suddenly they were gone - as also
were the ethereal, ghostly forms of the guardians who had appeared behind them - as if
at the flick of an electrical switch.
The three adventurers were once again astounded and enthralled at the colossal
visions of beauty and light that they had ]ust witnessed. Coming right on top of their
horrific experience with the satanic emanation, which they had really believed to be true,
this second manifestation of Narianne as a titanic angel warrior of light, plus her friend,
Hazel, now in a similar status, left them totally bemused.
!t was Narianne!" Drew said to Errol, after they had taken some time to collect
their wits. You cant argue the toss !nIs time, mate! Not after seeing wn was wI!n her!
! Knw ! was right the first time! Well, what do you make of that, old son? !snt it
absolutely marvelous and amazing!"
Errol who still seemed to be in a trance, ]ust nodded his head vigorously, then as his
senses returned to normal, he beamed brilliantly at Drew. Your dead right, buddy!" he
said, finally convinced. !d be a total fool to deny that was HazI with Narianne! But
nw !n nK did they manage to make themselves IIK !na!?" He looked as though he
had been struck by a Divine bolt out of the blue, like Saint Paul must have done after his
Road to Damascus experience.
Well," replied Drew, We know one thing /I suI nw that we used to mock the
girls about on the e-groups! There IaII) Is a whole world of psychic phenomena out
there, and its all wrapped up in some strange way with the Hollow Earth! Narianne - and
now obviously HazI, ! - are both adepts at Astral Travel. Remember how we used to
reckon it was all self-kidology? And that all those so-called m)s!Is" ought to be booted
off the list because they were wrecking it for the rest of us Serious Scientific !nquirers"?
Gee, Errol! How )nIaI we were!"
Here Chas put in his two cents worth. Lads! Ah never would hae believed what a
tremaindous eye-opener Ah was in for when Ah took ye up on yer kind offer tae see if the
Airth was hollow or no! Ah thocht for sure Ahd hae ye throwin en the towel lang before
thes, an we steell havenae proved the geological fact, even noo - and yet Ahm areedy
conveenced that yell be provin !na! tae be true too, verra soon! Nan, Ahve always
believed en Goad, an a that side o thengs, but Ah know that the Deils also a verra real
pairson, too, noo! But hes no yon feller we saw settin on yonder throne, yell ken. H
was tae much like a cairtoon-vairsion o hemseilf! Even doon tae the red suit an the
peetchfork!"
Hey! Just hang on a cotton-picking minute, Prof!" cried Errol. He wasn! wearing
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any red suit - that was ]ust the effect of the torchlight on his bare skin, or scales, whatever
! ! know that the girls said he was ]ust a figment of our imagination that the reptilians
borrowed out of our minds to scare us with, and ! guess ! gotta accept that, but he
honestly struck me as being the real NacCoy - until he vanished, of course! But like you
said, he was maybe laying it on a bit thick. ! guess the critters have some way of getting
into our minds and figuring out what makes us tick!" He sat down on one of the rock seats
to ponder on it all a little more.
Drew took up the conversation then. ! think youre right about that, Errol. They I
Knw how to pick through our minds to see what we were most afraid of! !ve always
been terrified of being Dna. Dunno why. Naybe something ! leaned about in
history at school. You know, Henry the Eighth, Queen Elizabeth and all that ]azz? They
were always sending some poor half-witted courtier to the scaffold, and ! thought `Wna! a
nIIIDI wa) ! I1 ! guess it must have stuck in my subconscious ever since! But !
really thought it was goin to be my turn for the chop, for sure! Thank God you fellers
came in after me! !d have probably died of a psychosomatic pain in the neck, but !m
sure itd have killed me ]ust as dead!"
Aye, yere right there, Andrae! the professor agreed They seemed tae know that
Ah was always afeared of haein a hairt-attack, sence they run in mah faithers family,
which was why yon trickster-feller put the idea intae mah haid, an ah began tae have a
the seemptoms. Then a got this quote frae the book o Job popped intae mah mind aboot
Tna! wnIn An mas! /aI! nas m upn m." an richt away Ah knew it was a a loat
oauto-suggestion. Then suddenly another thoucht leapt entae mah haid. PsIs! !n DII
an nII /I /Ia )1" an it.."
And ! got exactly the sam mssag!" cried Drew, At exactly the same time! Thats
why ! ]oined you when you started singing!"
And m !, guys!" grinned Errol. ! guess it must have been Hazel and Narianne
shooting us a friendly reminder!"
Suddenly Drew realized something different in Errols case. Hey, Erb! How come
you didnt get any Wna! 1 Ms! FaI" treatment, mate? We dont know what )uI
favourite pet-horror is yet! Fair crack of the whip old mate! We told you uIs, now )u
have to tell us )uIs!"
Errol went a bright shade of pink - although it could hardly be seen in the now
darkened cavern. Er - well - er, ! guess he hadnt gotten around to me yet. Then the
girls appeared, so ! - er . Hey! Listen, you guys!" he said adroitly changing the sub]ect.
Why are we sticking around here digging all this garbage up? ! think we ought to do
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what they told us to do, and get the heck on out of here! No point standing around
shooting the breeze, waiting for the critters to come back! We can get to someplace safe
and then chew the fat all we want! But lets g! mDII, guys, for Petes Sake!"
Drew suddenly realized that Errol had a very valid point. So they hurried up the
sandstone steps and after finding their two backpacks still untouched where they had left
them in the main corridor, they left the scene at almost a ]ogging-pace. To their delight,
a mere hundred or so yards further on they found that the tunnel was sloping uphill again.
Even though it made the going a lot harder, they felt enormously relieved.
As they hurried along, Drew remembered another thing the girls (I/ I! was pIpI !
aII !nm sun In !nII spInI II as gIan! LIgn! WaIIIIs} had told them. To depend
only upon the weapon of Faith and Truth , and to always bear in mind the word Excel-
sior"! How did they handle this amazing weapon theyd talked about? And what, for
crying out loud, did EceIs1or" mean? He had an idea that it was to do with pursuing
the best, or having the will to succeed, but surely theyd been doing that all the time since
they parachuted down the first shaft? What more uI they do?
Hey, Chas!" he panted to the professor, who was striding along like an Olympic
champ, now hed recovered from his terrible psychosomatic ordeal of pain. Youre a very
clued-up sort of bloke. What does EceIs1or" mean to you?"
Weel, Andrae." Said Chas, All that Ah can recall is 1n xIsIs D", which ef mah
maimory sairves me richt, stands for Ga In Tn HIgns!". Although Ah hae a suspeecion
that the word probably means somethin a wee bit defferent, like tae the Highest Degree
of Attainment", yell nae doot ken? Ah cannae be ."
But here Errol butted in. Hey! Hey! ! think ! got it! ! recall that word from when !
was a snotty and pimply kid in my freshman year at college. !t was one of the first poems
! learned. Yeah! Thats It! !t was one of Longfellows poems about some weird guy who
went marching up into the Swiss Alps carrying a banner... Lemme see now - A banner
with this strange device - Excelsior"! Apparently he was some kind a loony as he kept
on going up higher into the mountains holding his banner.."
Wasnt a 5!aI-5pangI one, by any chance, was it?" inter]ected Drew dryly.
Hey! Get outa here!" laughed Errol. No, the guy totally ignored all the local moun-
tain-men - and the gals, too - who tried to distract him from his crazy mission, and ]ust
kept right on full steam ahead! And all the while, he kept on hollering this word - EceI-
s1or" at any passers-by.."
Lets cut to the chase, Erb!" said Drew, who was getting a little weary of Errols
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hyperbole. What happened to this bloke? Did he finally make it to the top? Did he plant
this wonderful banner on some snow-capped peak, and claim it for the good old USA?"
Errol gave him a disdainful glare. Oh, no! He was found by the monks from Saint
Bernards monastery - actually it was one of those big hounds with a little barrel around its
neck - but hed frozen to death, poor stiff - forgive the pun - and they found his banner
still clutched in his icy mitt!"
Well! Thats not much bloomin inspiration to us, is it, mate?" laughed Drew sar-
donically. Are we supposed to keep on climbing up out of this hellhole, yelling xIsII
at every bloomin reptilian or demon we meet, them finally freeze to death when we reach
the inner surface? Eh?"
Errol grinned back at Drew. Aha! But wait! Theres more! ! forgot to feed you the
punchline!"
Och, aye? An what was that, might Ah airsk, mah erudite wee laddie?" asked Chas,
who had been a keen listener to their exchange.
Errol smiled his YuI Gnna Lv TnIs smile. the monks suddenly heard the guys
voice calling down EXCEI5TOR!" from Heaven or Paradise -- which was presumably
where hed been heading for in the first place!"
Hey!" cried Drew amazed. Nw 1 DgIn ! savv) !n message1
!m glad smD) does!" remarked Errol. Whats the point in making it up to the
surface and then dropping dead of cold! !t kinda defeats the whole exercise!"
But Drew had stopped and dropped his backpack. Whilst he fumbled around in it for
something, he said patiently, No, you still dont g! I!, mate. TI 1s the point if we find
ourselves to be aIready 1n Parad1se when we finally see daylight up top! Dont you see?
Thats what Narianne was telling us! Weve got to keep right on going, ignore all the
diversions, an any hindrances from the local inhabitants, and well come out in the TA-
AER EARTH! She was hinting that its )us! I1Re PaIaIs!"
Errol frowned at this last sentence. And Hazel too, by the way, buddy!" he said, in
a slightly miffed tone. 5ne was telling us about it , too, dont forget!"
Oh, yair! Well, the pa1r of them, then!" conceded Drew. But thats definitely our
aim and ob]ective, mates! So heres to good old EXCEI5TOR !"
And with that, he produced from his pack a full bottle of the sparkling mineral-water
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they had taken from the great river in the illuminated cavern theyd found - almost in
another existence, it seemed - and took a good long swig of it.
Hey! Whoa! Leave some for us, bro!" cried Errol, making an ineffectual grab for
the bottle.
But Drew, still sipping from the bottle, ambled on a little further until they came to
a small side cave. Thisll do, fellers!" he said, tossing down his backpack, and digging into
it again for more water and ration packs. ! reckon its wII pas! !Im we pulled in for a
decent bite and a drink anyhow! Dunno if you fellers realize it, but its over a /uII a) now
since we last had any tucker or drink at all!"
They once again managed to make a reasonable snack-meal for three from one of
the meagre few Survival ration-packs they now had left, and the mineral water seemed to
possess some strange reinvigorating property in itself. Drew believed that this was how
theyd come so far on a single meal. He stopped short at saying it had any magical
qualities, but it certainly made them all feel a whole lot better.
However, if they were much longer underground they would soon be reduced to
catching some of the vermin that scurried around the tunnels, nooks and crannies of the
uncanny maze they seemed to be wandering through. Errol shuddered involuntarily when
Drew mentioned catching and eating these lesser reptilian life-forms, or even the bats,
cockroaches and centipedes which also scurried and fluttered around in the gloomy pas-
sages.
OGGHH!" Errol exclaimed in disgust at the very thought of having to subsist upon
such creatures. !d rather die of starvation, thanks all the same, buddy!" he said, his
shuddering voice echoing his squeamish revulsion at the idea.
Drew looked up at him suddenly. Hey! Thats I!, isnt it?" he said with a grin. thats
your maidenly secret! The secret horror you tried to keep from us up in the Devils cave!
You dont fancy eating lizards or insects! Boy! You oughta be glad you werent born a
native aboriginal Australian, mate! They really !nIIv on that sort of bush-tucker" -
nothing like a fresh barbecued goanna or a handful of spit-roasted witchetty-grubs, nice
and fat and ]uicy! Hey! Yair! And snakes make ripper eating too! They taste ]ust like
chicken! Surprised the Colonel hasnt got onto èm yet - ! can see the Tv ad right now:
`FIngI-LIKIn Kn!uK) FII TIgI-5naK /III!s1 Ys, sII1 Nighty fine eatin, suh!"
Errol almost vomited at Drews rather graphic description of this Australian Bush-
Tucker. ! cant even stand TOUCH1NG the things!" he said, looking distinctly green around
the gills. Let alone actually EATTAG them!" He was almost at the point of dry-reaching
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when Drew realized that Errols phobia was so profound.
Sorry about that, Errol, old son!" he said contritely. ! guess you feel about that like
Chas does about Hell and devils - and like ! do about being beheaded! ! guess we all have
our foibles, mate! ! apologize, Errol. Just charge it up to my natural Bloody Aussie charm!"
Apology accepted! Lets say no more about it, bro!" said Errol, brightening up
considerably. Oh, by the way - Did you realize that thats the first time you us a uss-
wI since we saw the girls in that Satan place?"
Drew was genuinely astonished at this. Bad language came as easily and uncon-
sciously as breathing to most red-blooded Aussie males. Next thing hed be heading for
Bible College to train for the clergy! Gee! Now that Is weird!" he admitted. ! wonder if
its got anything to do with Narianne? ! dont think she went a bundle on my bad
language, come to think of it - or )uI DIaspnmIng, either, Erb!"
Naybe its to do with being on the side of the Angels?" suggested Errol, ignoring
Drews crack at his Goddamn"ing everything. Naybe the old saying is !Iu? The one that
says vII Bg!s vII? That uI be why we seem to have attracted so much unwel-
come attention from all these demonic entities!"
Aye, weel, none of us es a white as the dreeven snaw!" put in the professor, So Ah
can see the sense in what yer sayin, Errol! Even Ahm not withoot mah faults, ef et
comes tae that!" He paused awaiting the expected sarcastic comment from Drew, but
when none came - much to his surprise - he continued. Ye might weel be oan the richt
track, laddies! Ah can see that Ahll nae doot make a pair o fine upstandin young Chrestian
fellers o ye baith, ]ust noo!"
Drew said nothing. He was too busy trying to come to terms with this new idea of
becoming something of a saint! He imagined being married to a woman who could zap
him every time he inadvertently let slip a swearword. Then he weighed up the alternative.
He decided that a wonderful girl like Narianne was well worth such a minor sacrifice. He
guessed - correctly - that Errol had already thought about the same prospect himself, and
had arrived at a similar conclusion. Otherwise he wouldnt have mentioned him swear-
ing" - or whatever its correct definition was!
However, that must all be put on the back-burner for now. They had other fish to
fry! Like getting out of this hive of evil with a whole skin! He got to his feet and slapped
the crumbs off his coveralls, ready to hit the trail again. He gently stirred his dozing
companions into activity. ÈXCELS!OR, here we come! he thought to himself. Àn !n
DvII !aK !n nInIms!1 said another, totally aIIn thought that suddenly popped un-
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bidden into his mind! Ònn1 thought Drews own mind, `Were obviously not through the
trial yet! The enemys still listening in!
* * *
And although Drew didnt know it, so too, were Narianne and Hazel. They had been
home to Glengarry for a break and some genuine R 8 R" - for even the spirit needs to
escape and relax from time to time. The past few days had taken a heavy toll upon their
spiritual morale, and they needed to get away from the appallingly oppressive evil of the
hellish realm theyd been doing battle in. !t was very hard to leave their men in such a
vile situation, but they would be of little use if they allowed their spiritual resources to run
down completely - especially since the mens battle and trial wasnt over yet. No, not by
a long shot!
Sleeping was no help, for their bodies had already had a surfeit of slumber during
their astral travels. On a couple of occasions now, Narianne had felt her spirit being
snatched back urgently to her body, because its biorhythms demanded some wakeful
activity. This was a constant danger in leaving the body for too long at a stretch, and
could result in some sort of stroke or other mental affliction - not to mention physical
effects from overlong inactivity - such as DvT or other circulatory disorders.
What they both needed was a change of scene - although, now that they were
known to the Enemy - they were not beyond attack even here at Glengarry. Time and
space had little meaning in the spiritual, astral realm, where even the distance between
the far-flung stars was less than a mere blink of the eye! The Enemy was no doubt all
around Glengarry even now. His spies would have followed them in legions. However, in
their wakeful state, it was much harder for the Enemy to physically or even psychically
harm them.
The two young women had decided to have a chat to Joan and see how things were
going on a personal level with her and her family. Joan was alone, since her two girls
were at their studies in the radio-schoolroom and Bob was out on the property somewhere
with young Charlie. She was thus greatly pleased to see Narianne and Hazel, and ushered
them into the great sunlit lounge-room for morning coffee. As soon as they were all
comfortable and the coffee and biscuits prepared and set before them, Joan brought them
up to date on what had transpired since their last conversation. She said that they had
experienced what she assumed to be some mild poltergeist" activity around the house.
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!t had not been anything horrific, of course, but scary enough to have Bob out of bed and
prowling around the house with his shotgun at the ready. The sounds had been suffi-
ciently noisy to give the impression that there were intruders creeping about in the dark
and knocking ornaments and suchlike things over. She had been rather surprised that
the racket hadnt woken Narianne and Hazel up, but they seemed to have slept through it
She herself had arisen a couple of times when Bob had gone of into a deep slumber,
but she had followed Nariannes advice and had acquired a bottle of holy water from the
local parish vicar, and, armed with this (in - of all the practical things imaginable - a pIas!I
pump-a!In !Ign!-spIa)), and a silver crucifix, she had patrolled the house on silent,
slippered feet. But although she had located two or three cold spots" -which shed
sprayed thoroughly with holy water - and a rather flesh-crawling corner of one of the
unoccupied bedrooms - also liberally sprayed - she had found nothing of a visually tan-
gible nature. However, she and Bob, together with their three offspring had gotten into
the regular habit of saying several prayers together on a regular evening basis at suppertime
- including prayers for Narianne and Hazel and the three men.
But Bob was apparently still having problems with mysterious stock losses, which
were now not only confined to the vicinity of the rocky outcrop, where hed destroyed the
subterranean tunnels, but had become quite haphazard around and within the propertys
limits. And now one of his neighbours on an ad]oining station, was beginning to suffer
similar losses. The word had somehow got around that it was the work of some big cat,
like a panther, and this myth was being encouraged by Bob and his station-hands, who all
knew differently.
Jimmy, alas, in a moment of insobriety at the local Winton hostelry that he fre-
quented, had mentioned something of Drews investigations at Undara. Since that unfor-
tunate lapse on Jimmys part, the word had passed around that the mysterious ghostly
occupants of that remote area had come to Glengarry to exact revenge upon Drews
family and their stock!
Bob was also having some even worse problems with bad nightmares - something
he had never complained of in the past, and Joan was quite worried about him. Twice in
the past four days she had been woken by his restless tossing and turning and his occa-
sional incoherent shouts and cries for help, and had had to gently rouse him, reassure him
then let him go off into a deep untroubled slumber. The last time, she had asked him what
he was dreaming about, but he talked so wildly about giant lizards and demonic creatures
that shed simply told him hed been indulging himself in too much late-night Tv and
cheese at suppertime. She didnt raise the possibility of the actual entities possibly
attacking his astral spirit whilst he slept, or Bob would have flatly refused to go to sleep at
all! Bob still tended to be fairly dismissive of the creatures actually attacking them In
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pIsn - spiritually or in any other way. He allowed his common sense to rule his mind,
instead of his spirit.
Joan then asked them how things were going on the astral front. She was aware
that they spent a lot of their time asleep, whilst they went forth to help Drew, Errol and the
professor. So she had laid down strict rules to her offspring - and to Bob to avoid disturb-
ing them when they were Out-of-Body". Joan said this last phrase in a curiously hushed
tone, and it was obviously still a thing she hadnt quite yet come to terms with fully.
However, she recognized her own difficulty in this as being largely due to her wishy-
washy" orthodox religious upbringing, and this helped her to accept this new spiritual
aspect amazingly well.
The two girls told her the basic details of their activities, and especially those of
Drew and his companions - as far as they felt Joan could handle them. Naturally, there
were many unpleasant details they had to leave out of their report, particularly in relation
to the part that the devil himself now seemed to be playing - if it IaII) was the Archfiend
himself, of course, and not one of his underlings acting in his stead.
They were sure that the so-called Prince of Darkness" had many other far more
important things on his agenda than the harrying of three mere mortals attempting a
seemingly impossible expedition! Things such as rebellions and uprisings, the fomenta-
tion of terrorism - such as that barbaric attack upon the New York WTC, and its conse-
quential armed confrontation between the Western allies and their Nuslim counterparts.
However, it seemed rather doubtful that even Satan would wish to take a hand in a Holy
War between two allegedly devout Godly armies - unless he could ensure that both sides
lost!
Joan was astounded when the girls revealed that the Three Nusketeers" had nearly
made it through over eight hundred miles of crust! And that their ob]ective lay almost
within their grasp. No. Sadly, they hadnt a clue at this stage when the men would be
coming home again, but they hope it would be within the next few months
This more or less rounded out their update discussion, and they spent a pleasant
half hour or so further, in discussing mundane everyday things, such as the weather, the
chances of rain, and Joans flower-garden which she was endeavouring to keep alive at
the front of the homestead pending the arrival of same!
Then there was a bit of rumpus out in the backyard, as Bob and Charlie arrived
home in the station utility, followed by a loud clumping of boots on the back porch, and
the entry of a highly agitated Bob, followed by a wide-eyed Charlie.
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Before Joan could ask what on earth had happened, Bob grabbed hold of her for
comfort , glaring down over her shoulder at the two alarmed girls out of staring eyes that
had clearly witnessed an extremity of horror.
Those bloody devilish bastards have killed Stan! And theyve carted poor little
Jimmy off down to their bloody filthy nest!"
Then, still clasping Joan, Bob broke down and burst into a torrent of tears of out-
rage and anger, whilst young Charlie, who had been teetering like a dead bush in a
cyclone, toppled over at full length on the lounge-room carpet in a dead faint.
Poor Joan was totally aghast. She had never before seen her husband break down
in this way. She had no concept of what to say to him, so shocked was she by his stark
utterance regarding Stan and Jimmy. All she could do was to hold him to her and let him
get over his enormous shock and horror at what must have happened to throw him into
such a state of stress and emotion.
However, the two girls now arose and put their arms around both Joan and Bob, to
help in comforting them both. Joans face was now a mask of anguish as the impact of
Bobs words struck home fully into her consciousness. Stan dead? And poor harmless
little Jimmy abducted to face the horrors of whatever terrible hellhole these creatures
had emerged? Suddenly she became fully aware of the frightening enormity of all the
things the girls had been trying to get her to understand! She began to shudder with a
nameless terror at the reality of their dire situation as a family.
Narianne sensed this and, nodding behind Joans back at Hazel and looking toward
the two big settees. Between them, they managed to steer Joan over to one settee and
the tear-blinded and strangely-scratched Bob towards the other. Then, having lifted their
feet up onto the cushions and made them both comfortable. They next attended to young
Charlie, who was ]ust recovering from his fainting spell, but was bleeding rather profusely
from his nose where it had hit the floor with a hefty bump. Some ice from the kitchen
freezer wrapped in a tea towel and draped over the bridge of his nose soon help stanch
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the flow, and Charlie, now fully awake, was guided into one of the armchairs, where he sat
with his head thrown back over its neck-rest.
By this time the two Jackson girls, Karen and Tracy, had come out of their school-
room to see what all the flap was about. Although they were scared by the scene that
confronted them - both their parents lying white and shocked, Bob with red crisscrossed
scratches now beginning to show up all over his face and arms, and Jimmy with a blood-
stained towel across his chest and an icepack across his brow and nose, they at once leapt
into action.
Whats happened, Narianne?" asked Karen, anxiously. Can we help?"
At thirteen, she was the elder of the two, but she was a very grown-up thirteen. !n
the outback of Queensland, youngsters tended to grow up in a hurry. Especially when
confronted daily by all sorts of sudden accidents and emergencies connected with work-
ers, machinery and beasts
Will ! put the kettle on?" asked Tracy, sensibly, if slightly smaller at eleven. A cup
of sweet teas good for people whove had a shock! Num told me!"
Great idea!" said Narianne, answering Tracy first. Then she turned to the elder girl.
Karen, honey, !d be glad if )u go call the Flying Doctor, please? Ask him to come over
as fast as he can. We think theres been a nasty accident up the back paddock somewhere,
and he needs to give your folks something for shock!"
As the two girls raced away to perform their tasks. Narianne turned to look at Bob,
who was struggling to get up from the settee. His tear-stained and scratched face was
now a mask of grim resolve, as he waved Narianne aside. Gotta get out to the ute!" he
cried, Stans lying in the back, an ! dont want the girls to see the poor bugger!" He
stumbled to his feet, and despite Nariannes whispered offer to go and throw a blanket
over Stan, Bob roughly pushed past her and stumbled out through the back screen-door,
and down the back verandah steps.
Neanwhile Joan ]ust lay back on the sofa with glazed eyes, staring at her son, who
appeared to be covered with blood. She still had no idea what was going on.
Hazel, who had hurried off to her bedroom for something, returned a moment or so
later with a blanket, which she threw over the severely-shocked woman. Then she began
bathing Joans forehead with a cool dampened washcloth,
Uts aull roight, Joan!" she said, Chorlies only hed a bet uv a nosebleed frum
bumping ut on the floor! Just you loi beck there, and tike ut easy! The Floying doctorll be
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here soon to geve you somtheng to hilp calm you down! OK?" Joan nodded her head
quickly. Then she noticed Bob had disappeared.
Hey! Whats happened to Bob?" she cried trying to get up, but Hazel gently pushed
her down again.
He ]ust hed to go out to the ute for sometheng, love." she said. Neriennes gun to
hilp hem, but thyll be beck en a munute, Oim sure! Now ]ust you tike ut easy, eh?" As
she said this Tracy came in with a cup of strong tea for her Num. And as Joan sat up to sip
it, Karen came in from the schoolroom.
! IaI the doctor, she said, and hell be here in about ten minutes! He was ]ust
heading back to Cloncurry as ! called, so hes turning around." She looked around. Wheres
my Dad gone, and Narianne?"
Before Hazel could stop her, she shot away through the kitchen and out onto the
back verandah. Fortunately, Bob was ]ust being helped back up the steps by Narianne,
who had helped him cover Stans gruesome remains with a tarpaulin. Now Narianne was
almost as pale as he was, despite her tanned Red !ndian complexion.
Stan, alas, had not been a pretty sight, and in addition, due to the heat of the day,
the flies had almost covered his dreadfully mangled and teeth-shredded corpse. Narianne
however, had managed to hold herself together. After they had chased away most of the
blood-crazed blowflies, she had helped Bob to open out the utes tarp and fasten it down
around the sides and tailgate. Bob himself had recovered some of his usual very mascu-
line poise, but his face was still pallid and haggard with the strain of the as-yet undisclosed
incident. And it was covered with a myriad nasty scratches, that were ]ust beginning to
show up.
She hurried ahead of him when she saw Karen ]ust about to descend the steps. !ts
OK, honey!" she said quickly. Dad ]ust wanted a breath of air! See? Hes looking a I!
better now, isnt he? And hell be even better still when the doctors had a look at him!
You nav called him, havent you?"
Karen nodded her head in affirmation. Hell be here in ten minutes or so. But
whats nappn, Narianne? Nobodyll tell me an)!nIng! And why has Dad got all those
cuts and scratches all over his arms and face? Has he been in a fight or something?"
We dont know, honey. Your daddy hasnt told us yet. Well ]ust have to wait a while
until he feels up to telling us aboot it." she looked over at Bob, and saw that hed ]ust
slumped back upon the settee, his face now a grim, red-crazed mass of scratches. !t was
obvious that the wounds were rapidly turning septic.
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Just then, as if to save her any further questioning, there cam the growing sound of
an aircraft approaching directly over the homestead roof, at a low altitude. As it passed
over the pilot buzzed his engine twice. A clear signal that the doctor had arrived. Hazel
made for the door, shouting that shed drive down to fetch the doctor up from the airstrip.
!t was only as Narianne heard the utes engine start up, that she realized that, unwittingly,
Hazel was taking Stans body with her to pick up the doctor and his nurse. But there was
nothing she could do about it.
Nearly fifteen minutes passed before they heard the ute returning and come to a
crunching halt in the yard. The doors slammed, then they heard hurrying feet trotting up
the steps and a moment later, in came the doctor. He was the same doctor who had
attended Errols bitten leg weeks earlier, but he had a different, though equally personable
young nurse with him. Hazel followed behind them, grim-faced.
As soon as Narianne caught her eye, she instantly knew that Hazel had shown the
doctor Stans appallingly ripped and chewed body. However, she said nothing. What was
there to say? They had no clear knowledge yet as to what had actually transpired, or even
where - although Bob had obviously been referring to the reptilians, which hed claimed to
have already wiped out, with his men, using flame-throwers and then blowing up the
entire tunnel-complex under the outcrop.
The doctor first examined Charlies nose, which actually looked far worse than it
was, despite the profuse bleeding. He also prescribed some medication to calm his nerves.
Otherwise, apart from being severely shaken by whatever he had witnessed, Charlie seemed
to be in a reasonable good state. Then he examined Bob closely, concentrating especially
upon his heart, and then his eyes and reflexes for any signs of neural damage, since Bob
was still staring quite wildly, as if at some unseen horror.
The doctor then looked closely at Bobs scratches, which he also found to be devel-
oping on Bobs legs, and said that he must immediately get him started on a course of
powerful antibiotics, since the scratches, although fairly superficial, had been caused by
something with big sharp claws or talons. Talons that had probably been in constant
contact with noxious germ-laden soils and fecal matter, and heavily-loaded with extremely
toxic bacteriological agents. He added that the scratches, ]udging by their rapidly-in-
creasing inflammation, were probably already producing golden staph and septicemia,
and probably lymphangitis, which could swiftly lead to thrombophlebitis and gas-gan-
grene if not brought under control in a hurry!
!n other words, within a matter of hours, unless immediately started on powerful
antibiotic treatment, Bob would almost I!aInI) develop a highly dangerous case of acute
cellulitis over much of his body, limbs and head. !f untreated, this could bring about his
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death within a couple of days through toxemia affecting his entire system, accompanied
by severe gangrene in his extremities, plus edema and heart-failure. He then gave Bob
two powerful antibiotic in]ections to get things started, as well as an anti-tetanus ]ab and
a wad of pills to take orally.
!ll have to come back and give him another lot of shots in about six hours time and
see how hes doing then!" he said, although he should really be in Nackay Base hospital
on an !v drip. Well ]ust have to see how he goes over the.."
I can give him the needles." interrupted Joan, much to everyones surprise. !m a
fully-qualified nurse, remember? ! used to work at Nackay Base, until ! met Bob there -
and he made a housewife of me! So why send him off to the coast?"
Of course!" grinned the young doctor. How stupid of me to forget! Oh, well, thats
really great! !ll leave you with a supply of antibiotic shots and drop back tomorrow to see
how Bobs doing!" Then he paused for a moment. Hey! !t ]ust struck me! Didnt ! treat
a young American bloke here a few weeks back for a goanna bite? By Jingo! You must
have a hell of a lot of savage reptiles around the property, Nrs. Jackson!" then he sat
down and wrote up some instructions for Joan to follow.
They all sat around in silence until he had finished writing, and had dug into his
capacious medical kit for the requisite supplies.
Now!" he said, briskly. Regarding poor old Stan out there. Thanks to this young
lady here," he indicating Hazel, !ve already had a look at Stans body in the back of the
ute, out at the plane, and, in view of the circumstances, ! had to call in a report to the
police. Theyre already on their way here, so !d recommend that you leave the body
untouched till the police surgeons had an opportunity to view it - and hear how poor Stan
came to meet with such a terrible death. Thats if Bob or Charlie are up to it!" He looked
up doubtfully at Bobs strained and red, swelling face. But Bob nodded his assent. !t
looks very much as though Stans been mauled to death by some sort of large, vicious
lizards, !d say. Although something more like those velociraptors from that dinosaur
movie would fit in with his in]uries better! !ll have to leave that part of the account up to
you, Bob - or maybe your lad here?"
No!" said Bob vehemently despite a rapidly mounting fever,. Charlies been through
enough bloody trauma today, poor kid! 1II do all the necessary talking!"
OK" said the doctor, anxious not to let Bob get too worked up !ll leave it like that.
But really, the whole matter wIII have to be reported to the proper authorities so that they
can bring in trained animal-control people. Whatevers responsible for this needs to be
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completely eradicated."
Bob told him that hed already tried to do precisely that, but the bloody things had
]ust come back in droves!
Theyve been systematically weeding out all the prime steers from my stock for
days now. Yair, doc! Go ahead and bring in whoever you bloody want to, but ! reckon its
already far too bloody late!" Then he lapsed into a bout of delirium from the rising toxic
fever, and lay back with his eyes closed, muttering odd words like ..Undara".. down
the flamin shaft".. bloody evil bastards".. and burn the bloody rotten sods"..
The doctor looked at Joan, shaking his head in gloomy puzzlement.
Then they heard the sound of a police-siren approaching along the long driveway.
Narianne glimpsed the cars arrival through the lounge window. !t was followed by a
closed white van.
Suddenly the house seemed to be full of heavy treading policemen, followed by the
police-surgeon. A hefty-looking police sergeant at once took charge of the proceedings,
and after a few murmured words with the flying-doctor, Joan, and Hazel - for Bob was
now in no fit state to be interviewed - he and the two doctors went outside with a couple
of constables to examine the contents of the utility. A couple of moments later, after the
utes tarp had been unfastened, the three women heard one of the policemen retching his
lunch up behind the police-car.
Soon, the sergeant and the two medics were back indoors again, looking rather the
worse for the experience. How the hell did !na! happen?" asked the horrified sergeant.
He glanced over at Bob now lying restlessly unconscious on the settee, then at young
Charlie. Can )u tell us an)!nIng about this terrible business, son?" he asked. Doesnt
look like were goin to get a whole lot out of your Dad, at the moment!"
Charlie looked up at him rather dubiously. Then he glanced over at has Dad.
! - !ll - do m-my b-best." he said very hesitantly. However, once he got over the
initial stage-fright of talking to such awesome authority-figures, the floodgates of his re-
cent awful memories swung wide open and he told them all that hed witnessed.
Apparently, he had gone out with
his father, Stan and Jimmy, to check if any more cattle had been killed , and they had
discovered three newly-torn and mutilated cattle out beyond the now-infamous outcrop.
They had been attacked in exactly the same way as the others, and the sight of their poor
mangled and ripped remains had thoroughly sickened them all. His Dad had really blown
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his stack, and yelled that Tna! was DI) nugn - n was gIng ! g a/!I !n Das!aIs
nImsI/. No, he hadnt mentioned anything about panthers or tigers! Hed shouted
about mns and DI) Ip!IIIan vIIs, and that they must have come back to the
outcrop.
After that, his Dad had got really mad, and had driven like a lunatic back to the rocky
outcrop where Stan had previously placed all the gelignite charges and blown up all the
passages. Theyd then searched all around the ruined tunnels but there was no trace of
any living thing to be found. Then they stopped, and had their Smoko by the ute, and
Stan opened his up but found they were chicken sammos again. He was fed up with his
wife always giving him chicken sandwiches, so after hed eaten a couple, he threw the rest
away among the rocks.
A couple of minutes later, Stan saw something up in the rocks trying to find the food
hed throw there, and as he got up hed said WII 1II D DuggI, BD1 Tn II!!I ss
aI DaK agaIn1. Well, Stan had scooted off over the rocks where the tunnels had been,
with Bob right behind him carrying the twelve-bore. Bob had shouted to Jimmy to fetch
a couple of torches, but he told Charlie to stay back with the ute.
From what, Charlie could hear then, as they called out to each other, it had sounded
like theyd found a section of the tunnels that was still intact, despite the huge blasting it
had been given. !t had then gone pretty quiet for a while, until all hell had suddenly
broken loose. There was a lot of snarling and growling and hissing, then hed heard Stans
voice screaming out: FI Gs saK, smD) nIp m1 then hed kept on shrieking
really loud, ]ust like pigs did when theyre being killed, and Charlie had heard Bobs shot-
gun blasting away like crazy. Hed next heard Jimmys voice shouting out that Tn) g!
nIm1, but his voice seemed to kind of fade away into the distance.
The last thing he recalled from the outcrop was seeing his Dad dragging Stan out
from among the rocks, but they had both been covered by brownish lizard-looking things
about as big as cats, that were biting them both and ripping at them with their claws! But
as they got out into the sunshine, they started dropping off them, and darting back into
the shadows. Then Charlie had run forward and helped his Dad to drag Stan back to the
ute, but Stan was all covered with blood and he didnt even try to help himself. So Bob
and Charlie had to push and shove him real hard to get him up onto the tray of the ute,
then they shut up the tailgate.
Bob had been pretty crook himself, and he was sort of crying to himself, so Charlie
had to drive the ute back to the homestead, but it was no worry because his Dad had
shown him how to drive when he was still only a little kid! His Dad had made him stop
near the dam, and they got out to have look at Stan before going to wash all the blood off
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their hands and faces. Charlie said his Dad didnt want his Num to see them all bloody,
like! But Stan looked like hed carked it. Charlie said hed told his Dad he had never seen
a dead person before, and his Dad had said Well, you bloody have now, lad!"
Then hed driven the ute into the yard, and Bob had ]ust raced straight off inside.
And that was all he could remember. The police-sergeant didnt push young Charlie any
further, except to pat him on the back and tell him hed been a really brave young feller,
and his Dad should be very proud of him.
Then the sergeant straightened up and told Joan that hed leave it at that for the
time being. !t looked like a Da!n D) MIsavn!uI ]ob to him, so there was no need for
detectives to come out pestering them, but the police-surgeon would want to take Stans
remains back to Longreach with him for a proper forensic examination. He himself would
inform Stans missus who lived at Winton, on their way back, as Joan had enough on her
plate already, without trying to console grieving widows!
He would be glad, however, if shed let him know when Bob was up to giving an
interview? But, for the moment, however, the young bloke had done a first-rate ]ob of
telling what had happened.
At this point, the flying doctor took his leave, telling Joan hed call and see Bob again
the next day, but if he got worse, she was to give him a yell right away, and hed have to
fly him over to Nackay Hospital for more intensive care. Then, with his pretty nurse, who
had simply been a bystander throughout the whole affair, he went out to the police car to
get a lift back to his plane down on the landing-strip.
The sergeant bade them all a rather lame Good-day", then went out onto the
verandah to finish his notes, whilst awaiting the squad-cars return back up from the
landing-strip. They heard the plane take off, and a few minutes later the squad-car was
back to pick up the sergeant, and, followed by the surgeons van, they also left.
The three women stared at each other in a deep introspective silence for several
minutes. Then Joan asked the girls if theyd help her to get Bob into this bedroom, where
he be a lot more comfortable. He was fairly quiet now, as the drugs and antibiotics
began to kick in, and, thankfully, his fever didnt appear to have risen any higher.
Young Charlie was also dispatched off to his bed for an hour or two, while the shock
wore off. All things considered, after what that the youngster had witnessed and had
done, hed borne up amazingly well under it all. Now the three women found themselves
being plied with more cups of tea by Karen and Tracy, who had discreetly kept out of the
way during all the drama.
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They all appreciated the nice attention and the refreshment, and found that a cup of
hot sweet tea, in a time of dire stress, really was Tn Cup !na! CnIs1
!t was halfway through this welcome little break that Joan - who had borne all the
whole business so stoically - finally broke down in tears, and Narianne and Hazel sat on
either side of her and let her cry it all out of her system. She felt much better afterwards,
and after looking in on Bob, she went off into the kitchen to get the tea on.
The girls tried to dissuade her but she was adamant about getting on with her
chores. They finally left her to it, and sat facing each other in the great deserted lounge
room, which had seen so much turmoil since they first entered it.
Whew!" said Hazel. ! thought we kime out here to hev a noice quoiet efternoon,
for a chinge! Looks loike Oi was blooming wrong! Ut seems loike the inimys caught up
weth us, efter all, dont you rickon, love?"
Yeah, its certainly looking that way." said Narianne. But ! think theres a new
variety of demon creeping into the picture now, ! remember when we materialized in that
cavern where that make-believe Satan" was holding his mock-trial, that ! saw a whole lot
of those really nasty little demons in the crowd of onlookers! ! wonder where theyre all
from? You get what !m driving at, Hazel? ! can kinda relate the big reptilians to the fallen
angels OK, but all these little guys strike me as being more like goblins or imps of some
kind! Naybe the old concept of HII they used to believe in during the Dark Ages could be
the right one? What do you think?" But before Hazel got a chance to answer, Narianne
continued thinking out loud.
What if Hell" is a IaI pIa, after all - not the sort of orthodox church" idea where
they have devils pushing sinners into a great bonfire - but a sort of huge colony, deep in
the crust where all these hadean creatures have lived all down the ages, interbreeding
and producing all sorts of weird genetic sports". Creatures that are in some way related to
ourselves, even! ! guess !m kinda thinking that there may be lots of different places like
that, and the guys have passed through a couple of their realms? Take Agartha and
Shamballah, for example. According to all the stuff ! read on these places, they arent all
that deep down in the Crust, and some people even believe that A!Ian!Is s!III xIs!s, down
below where it used to be, but now deep down under the crustal surface. The same
might be true of Mu, too! ! mean they have pretty good proof now of Nus one-time
existence, since they found those big carved monuments at Yonaguni, deep under the
coastal Pacific!
Gee! The list ]ust goes on and on! ! have a feeling that Branton guy on the Net was
really onto something when he dug out all that stuff about the hi-tech Reptilians and
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Grays, who are supposed to be in cahoots with some of the modern human nations! And
there are heaps of old legendary stories of other people who live deep inside the Earths
crust.
Why my own people have stacks of tribal stories about subterranean dwellers. A lot
of our old legends say that we ourselves came from inside the Earth! The Africans have
similar stories, too. And so it goes, all around the world. Hey! Yeah! And how about all
these so-called UFO abduction stories! You find parallels all through legendary history!
What about the Pied Piper of Hamelin in Germany, who rounded up all the kids from an
entire city and made them all follow him inside a big mountain - and they were never seen
again! !d say they were roping in some fresh genetic material, because they were getting
too inbred!"
Hazel ]ust stared at her friend in confused amazement. Croikey Deck!" she said.
Just guv me a daiy or two to ebsorb all !n!, will you? Noi moinds spnnIng!"
After their evening meal with Joan, and her children, including young Charlie, who
had awoken feeling much better, and hearing that Bobs fever was now receding, the two
young women retired to Nariannes room, for a council-of-war.
!t was obvious that they couldnt leave Joan on her own by both going Òut-Of-
bodyat the same time. They would have to divide the tasks of watching their menfolk
between them, one remaining awake whilst the other went out into the astral. !t was also
a better safeguard for the absent one in the event any concerted attack were to be
launched against the homestead itself. Narianne had actually pondered the pros and
cons of visiting the rocky outcrop in her gigantic Light-Warrior guise to see if she could
perhaps frighten its occupants away.
She had found by recent experience, that these lesser demons appeared to be fairly
easily put to flight, but she felt that their leaders mus! be of a much higher spiritual order
who would be of far stronger mettle, and who would give as good as they got. However,
if she disguised herself sufficiently well, they might not recognize her for what she was.
Surely, it was worth a try, at least?
But there was also the very real possibility that if she was spotted and challenged by
such powerful demonic spirits and found herself having to flee, they would be likely to
pursue her right back In! the homestead itself. That was a risk she refused to take. The
ones who had given some pursuit to Hazel and herself previously, had obviously not pressed
home any ma]or attack. Theyd been lucky then, but would they be so lucky a second
time? She wasnt sure if there was any direct connection between the creatures Drew
and the others had contended with and those under the outcrop at Glengarry. She didnt
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really think so. There seemed to be such nests and hives scattered far and wide beneath
the global crust.
America, for example, in particular, if all the reports were accurate, seemed to have
more than its fair share. Yet Canada seemed to have escaped any ma]or concentration
thus far. But this was probably largely due to the neighbouring USA being such a powerful
magnet for demonic activity. From all accounts, the aIIg, but widely-discussed, under-
ground and covertly-secretive activities of certain government agencies, both military and
civil - I/ In !Iu - would have proved irresistibly attractive to such subterranean races,
hence their apparent proliferation there. Not to mention the spreading atheistic under-
current of moral turpitude that seemed to plague that fair land.
Australias white civilization itself, although primarily British in origin, had long pat-
terned itself upon the US model in a great many respects, having shared a very similar
historic background, life-style, and now having become a similarly ethnic intermixture of
nationalities. Atheism was fast becoming equally rife, as was moral decline, so such an
overall similarity could very likely have attracted the same sort of demonic attention.
America and Australia had no monopoly in this regard. Nany other apparently self-
righteously Christian Western nations suffered from precisely the same morally degenera-
tive affliction. The ma]or churches had largely brought about their own decline and down-
fall by failing to root out perversion and corruption among their own priests and pastors,
and sheltering the malefactors from civil ]ustice.
Hence, many people, totally disillusioned by the ineffectuality of orthodox religion to
combat evil, even within its own ranks, were now turning elsewhere for spiritual guidance
and comfort. As the worn-out, tried-and-failed orthodox religions steadily had begun to
sink into decline, the far more spiritually-focussed and Light-oriented New Age movement
had begun to rise and flourish.
However, Narianne had to decide where her more immediate priorities lay, and,
since there was evidently still no direct physical threat to Joan and her family, she resolved
to venture forth to see how the men were faring in their quest.
She locked the bedroom door and lay down upon her bed. For a few moments she
lay composing her spirit, cleansing her mind of all negative thoughts and emotions, and
seeking the blessing of the Great Spirit and the help of His guardian angels should she
require it. Then, within moments, she had launched her spiritual self forth upon the
astral-plane. At thought-speed, she sped directly downward through the double-thickness
of crust that extended vertically for nearly a thousand miles beneath her sleeping body.
Just as spiritual entities appear insubstantial to us in the material physical world in which
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our corporeal bodies live and have their being, so did the material rocky crust of the earth
appear to Narianne. She shot through the solid rock strata as though it were nothing
more than a mere holographic pro]ection.
She wished herself directly to Drews location, and let the wish simply fulfil itself.
Her deep spiritual attraction to Drew guided her to his side like a divine homing-device",
and she found that her strong intuition in electing to visit him and his companions had
been no mere whim. Once again, the three men had come under a savage attack from
the elemental denizens of the hadean underworld!
* * *
Since their previous Pit-Stop" for refreshments and their subsequent deep philo-
sophical discussion, the three had continued upon their weary plodding way up the gloomy
corridor. By now they had all begun to develop some degree of extra-sensory-perception
- especially regarding the proximity of their enemies. Drew, in particular had made aston-
ishing advances in this, and could sense the direction from which the threatening forces
emanated. At the moment, he knew that they were being followed at a distance. He had
tried stopping suddenly, and straining his ears for the telltale pattering of naked leathery
feet. But every time he had done so, holding out his hands to stop his companions in their
tracks, there had been no sound.
However, he Knw intuitively that they wI there! Errol and Chas, after all they
had thus far witnessed and experienced, found themselves trusting this new awareness of
Drews without question, and tried to reach out with their own latent extrasensory in-
sights, but thus far their efforts had not been rewarded. Perhaps they were trying to
hard? Narianne had already detected this reaching forth of Drews spirit and she strove
with all her power to help him make the complete transition. But, for the moment, she
would have to allow him to achieve it for himself. She could now clearly sense that his
spirit was an extremely powerful one, and once it managed to break out of the final bonds
of his bullheaded earthy pragmatism, the real Drew would be a formidable opponent for
the dark entities that were stalking them.
She knew that she could probably stop the elementals dead in their tracks right
here and now if she applied herself, but this would contravene the rigid trial-conditions
that the Light Beings had imposed. They would not be granted admission to their goal
by default or excessive intervention by a third party. She could only help by indirect
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means. The actual, final breakthrough effort had to come directly from the three men
themselves.
The men were already tiring of their now-steady, stumbling uphill climb into pitch
darkness, broken only by the pitifully meagre light on their helmets. All their eyes could
see were the ad]acent passage walls of pallid stone beside them and the eternal stygian
blackness ahead of them. They passed many side-turnings in the rock wall, but they
doggedly stuck to the ever-upward sloping path before them. Their single diversion,
thankfully far behind them now, had almost spelled their doom.
Drews powers of sensory concentration were steadily diminishing as they struggled
onwards. He could only pick up faint vibrations now from the evil horde who were still
relentlessly tracking them. At first, he had fondly imagined that the diminishing emana-
tions were perhaps an indication that the enemy were steadily falling behind. That !n)
were tiring too. But now he realized that as he was tiring physically, so his nervous energy
was flagging too, and with it, his ps)nI force. They would soon have to stop again, and
hope for the best! His muscles cried out for rest, and his bowstring-taut nerves begged
for sleep. He prayed with all his heart for that distant glimmer of a faint greying of the
profound darkness which might herald the end of their tremendously wearying pilgrim-
age. But, every painful step must be taking them closer to their final goal: EXCELS!OR!"
But if Drew was weary, his fatigued condition was as nothing compared to that of his
two companions. Errol was experiencing a weird sense of unreality. He was at once a
huge leaden-footed zombie, plodding machinelike around a giant treadmill and an eva-
nescent, ballooning, ]ellylike amoebae floating upon a heady current in some vast ocean
of effervescently bubbling, luminous water. His was the delirium of a man in lost in a
desert. His eyes were fixed in a glazed stare, and his hands were thrust out in front of
him, as if to ward off the darkness like some encumbering impediment to his progress. But
as he stumbled on, his parched lips mumbled over and over a single word: EXCELS!OR!"
The professor was now in a far worse state. His chest felt as if it were locked tight
in a vice of pure agony, and every hard-won breath he drew caused his throat to contract
with throbbing pain. His calf-muscles felt as though every vein and artery was knotted
into a throbbing lump, and his upper arms ached intolerably, with lightning stabs of ex-
quisite agony darting right down to his fingertips. He felt waves of burning acidic nausea,
rising and ebbing in his esophagus, and an overwhelmingly terrible dread of imminent
death strove to swamp his mind.
But still he struggled onward and upward. For despite the pain and the horrible
dread, a great blazing word scribed in letters of blue-white fire burned in blinding bril-
liance on the forefront of his mind: EXCELS!OR!"
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Narianne could sense every stab of pain and every agonizing thought that flashed
through their bodies and minds with a terrible reality, but she could also sense an almost
magnetic gravitational beam that was being directed upon the trio from behind. !t was a
powerful force of negative energy, designed to drag them back and to wear them down
for the eventual kill! She could sense the malignant gloating air of triumph radiating from
the horde of foul hadeans as they picked up on the agonies of their quarry. !ntent upon
taking a closer look at these creatures, she willed herself to undergo a transformation into
a small cave-cricket, and hid herself in a crevice in the layered stone. Soon, with her
astral vision she saw them creeping towards her, a great mass of dull, brownish, scaly
creatures, with gaping mouths filled with sharp yellow fangs, and taloned hands and feet
armed with long amber needle-pointed hooked talons. These were quite different to the
reptilians she had encountered before, but they were still reptilian in general form. Those
that came along the floor of the passage, appeared to be able to walk upright, balancing
themselves with whiplike tails, whilst others among them proceeded sideways upon all
fours, along the walls of the corridor, clinging to cracks and crevices with their sharp
talons. Some even ran upside-down along the roof of the tunnel, with perfect agility and
balance.
But as if the dangerous attributes of the creatures were not enough, their nauseat-
ing stench of feral filthiness was appalling, and the fact that most of them were encrusted
and soaked with the fecal matter and urine which they constantly extruded, even upon
their followers, and, as they crossed over the crack in which Narianne was concealed they
exhaled horrendous gusts of appallingly foul breath that stank like sulphurised hydrogen!
And yet despite all this horror, they appeared to be conversing among themselves in some
in comprehensible sibilant, rasping tongue.
On an impulse, Narianne risked discovery by momentarily pro]ecting forth a sensory
astral probe into their minds as they passed, and was thus able to read their thoughts. !t
was a hideous experience, because their hissed conversation was centred upon the great
feast they anticipated once they had finally willed and wearied the men-creatures to a
standstill. Then they would strike in full fury and tear them apart!
The blood they would drink! The gobbets of fat and meat they would tear off and
gobble down whilst it still steamed! The bones they would crunch for the ]uicy marrow
they contained! !t was well worth the tedium of the stalking - although even this was
exciting in its own way! There was nothing better than a long hunt, followed by a
wonderful ]aw-slavering orgy of feasting! The thrilling, petrifying terror they inspired in
their victims was a marvelous bonus extra in itself!
Narianne had to shut off her mental link because the ghastly, grisly thoughts that
totally preoccupied the minds of these terrifying beasts were becoming utterly unbearable
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- even to a hardened veteran of the often fearsome astral realm like herself! As soon as
the last of the hideous, ravening horde had hurried hissing and snarling past her hiding-
place, Narianne emerged as her usual astral self. These vile creatures posed no real
spiritual threat to her, since they were of a very low elemental order in the spiritual sense.
Their principal strength lay in their numbers, and that they were all driven by the same
fundamental spirit of vicious evil and savagery. One had good cause to fear them en
masse, but as individual entities they had less psychic energy than the humblest of polter-
geists.
Her main concern now was for the men and she was prepared to do whatever it took
to preserve their lives. True. She had tacitly agreed with the Light Beings not to interfere
in their trials and tribulations, but her love for Drew - and his companions far outweighed
any such agreement. As far as she was concerned, there had been no intimation from
them of such an horrendous and pointless trial as this - which without her intervention,
could only end in the appallingly grisly ends of those whom she held so dear to her heart.
NO! She would not permit this to go any further - regardless of the outcome in
terms of her friends being turned back from their goal. Surely Professor Dinwiddie had
already seen enough incredible things for him to be able to rewrite the textbooks of
geophysics already, without the need for further proof ?
True, Drew wouldnt like the idea of missing his goal after such an arduous and
terrible ]ourney. !t was more than likely that he would heartily spIs her for robbing
him of his most cherished achievement. But she would rather live a life without Drew and
know that he was still aIIv an wII - than live one without him, knowing that she had
stood idly by and allowed him to die a hideous and unnecessary death, especially ]ust to
satisfy a ridiculous mandate of the Light Beings. They were a beautiful good people,
whom shed hitherto held in awed high esteem as being so unscrupulously wise, gentle
and kind in all things. But now she wasnt quite so sure.
Now, at the flick of a thought, she shot herself forward, past the gibbering horde of
hadean horrors - past the staggering trio of men they were hunting down - to a place
where the tunnel suddenly took a distinct turn for the worst. !t had now entered another
inhabited region - one which formed yet another hive of reptilian monstrosities! The
whole labyrinthine nest of tunnels was a foul slimy sewer of a place, in which the stench
was almost choking and the floors were plastered with a thick layer of ancient slime
composed of rotting flesh, fecal matter and urine!
The entire complex was pocked with pot-holes and cavelets through which similar
horrors to those she had ]ust encountered, appeared and disappeared, many of them
carrying mewling young that clung to their backs or breasts by sinking their newly-devel-
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oping talons and fangs into their flesh. Here and there, clusters of filthy leathery eggs -
spattered with feces - lay grouped roughly in hollows in the floors of the caves. Narianne
realized at once that this was none other than the horrifying home-hive and breeding
place of that monstrous swarm of creatures who were at this very moment driving their
next still-living repast homeward to be shared by their females and young!
Narianne immediately turned back with a sense of terrible foreboding toward the
point where she had seen the three men. They were there, all right, but they had
stopped and were peering back into the darkness, toward the source of a large body of
squeaking and whooping creatures - which, as yet, had not entered the light-beams of
their torches. They all held their revolvers out at arms-length before them, but as far as
Narianne was concerned, it was a magnificently courageous but useless gesture. They
might ]ust as well have held up pa-sn!Is to fend off such a numerous and utterly
bloodthirsty pack of viscously feral monsters!
Drew stood stock still, his gun-arm straight and unwavering, like a statue of raw,
fearless courage. Errol stood beside him, holding his torch in one hand and his revolver
in the other, swaying slightly as his senses swam in and out of delirium. He too, presented
a wonderful figure of valour in the face of insurmountable odds. The dear old professor,
despite his rapidly-failing heart, leant against the wall beside them, his pistol gripped
firmly in both hands, since his arms were at the point of collapse from the intolerable
blazing pain that radiated across his chest and down them both.
His was the bravest image of them all in Nariannes eyes. An already pitifully
weakened and dying man, preparing to sell what little shred of agonized life he still pos-
sessed as dearly as he could! And then suddenly, at last, the vanguard of the gibbering,
slavering army of stinking reptilian monstrosities loomed forth into the torchlight, raking
the air with glistening talons and exposing their razor-sharp yellow fangs in ferocious
grimaces of frightful triumph!
EXCELSIORl" roared Drew, and their three puny revolvers barked out in perfect
unison at the now-charging horde of screeching demonic horrors!
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Back at Glengarry Station, early the
following morning, things had begun to happen with a vengeance. The doctor had
looked in on his way to attend another patient, and had been pleasantly surprised that his
dire concerns and prognostications for Bobs health had not come to pass. !nstead Bob
was already free of the fever that had threatened to swamp him, and was feeling much
better, both in body and spirit. He was now able to coherently discuss the events of the
previous afternoon, and his account tallied very closely to that given by young Charlie.
The flying-doctor was keenly interested in the entire episode, as it was likely that he
might soon be treating more victims of such attacks if the creatures were spreading in the
area. Therefore anything he could learn from Bob about their nature and anatomy might
help him to be better prepared to cope with such an outbreak.
However, he advised Joan to complete Bobs course of antibiotic in]ections, to be on
the safe side, but after that he should make a complete recovery. The scratches were
already beginning to lose their red, inflamed look, so Bob had been very lucky to avoid the
anticipated cellulitis. After he left, leaving the whole family and Hazel much relieved, they
received more visitors. This time it was the police-sergeant from Longreach, who had
brought three other men with him. He introduced them as respectively a representative
of the State Department of Environment, an official from the CS!RO - the Commonwealth
Scientific and !ndustrial Research Organization - and an Animal Health officer from the
Department of Primary !ndustries. They were all very much concerned with what had
transpired, and were anxious to hear Bobs account of the weird creatures that had been
decimating his cattle.
Fortunately, Bob was up to the task of reiterating his story all over again, in which his
account was borne out by Charlie who had been called in from his chores. They were all
aghast at the information, and asked Bob if he had left any dead specimens behind him
after he was attacked. They were very anxious to lay hands on a specimen or two.
Bobs sense of humour had somehow survived all the horror of the past day or so, as
he suggested that the best way they could do this was to go and ferret around the
outcrop themselves - the creatures would probably be only too happy to lay !nII hands
on Inem - and their IeeIn, too! They ignored his ironic comment and quizzed Bob in
some depth as to how he had located the creatures hideout, so he told them of Drews
find of the first mangled and decapitated steer.
They then asked if Drew was available for a brief interview, but Bob was reluctant to
tell them where hed actually gone, since it would immediately attract official attention to
their activities up at Undara. So he told them that Drew had gone off on a geological
survey with a couple of friends to the !nI sI / !n wII", and wouldnt be back in
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Australia for several months at least. Joan was rather pleased to note how Bob cleverly
avoided lying to them about it.
They then asked if Bob would mind sparing one of his station staff to show them
around the outcrop area, and he obliged them by sending for his foreman, who then
carted them off in the station ute, since their car was unsuited to the terrain.
Heres hopin they have a bumpy bloomin ride!" said Bob, The nosey coots! !tll
serve èm right if they get their arses bitten off!" Joan wagged a reproving finger at her
husband, as he lay in state, propped up with pillows on one of the settees. But she
grinned at him, nevertheless. !t was good to see him recovering his old biting wit and
sarcasm. Bob grinned back. who knows?" he added. ! might even get a bit of Govern-
ment compensation for the beasts ! lost, now that the DP! have poked their bibs into all
this schemozzle!"
Then he grew serious again. !m still petrified at what could have happened to poor
little Jimmy, but. The bloody rotten things have probably already eaten the poor little
bugger, ! guess, God damn èm to Hell! He was such a harmless little feller, too, an he
could never do enough for us! Bloody great little worker, was Jimmy, an never a
flaminwhinge out of him, either. He was a real credit to his people!" ! tell you, love, its
gonna be pretty lonely around here without him an Stan, hangin around! ! hope Stans
missus is copin all right!" A tear trickled slowly down his cheek, and Joan put a loving
comforting arm around his shoulder.
Dont you worry yourself about that, Bob. !m going down to Winton to see her
myself in about half an hours time! Can ! tell her that well be looking after her from now
on? Financially, ! mean? After all, Stan was killed in the line of duty" as it were, so his
wife Is uI responsibility now, isnt she!"
Bob looked up at this wonderful, kind-hearted, sensible woman hed married and
grinned a moist-eyed smile. Wouldnt have it any other way, love!" he said.
Hazel had been a bystander during all this exchange, and now that things were
looking pretty well settled down and Bob well on the road to recovery, she wondered if she
might be able to get away to ]oin Narianne out there in the spirit world for a spell.
Narianne might well be needing a break now, so she might be able to relieve her for a few
hours. She went off and made her bed and attended to a few small chores for herself.
Then she emerged again to have a quick word with Joan about her intentions.
By this time, Bob had gone back to sleep again, and because of the sedatives the
doctor had prescribed for him, he would probably sleep on for some hours now. Joan
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was quite happy that Hazel was thinking of sIppIng // ! s nw !n mIn wI Ing
as she put it, as she was still extremely concerned about their welfare - especially Drews.
Now that she had heard directly from Bob and Charlies own mouths what sort of horren-
dous creatures lived inside the Earths crust, she had lost any faint remnants of skepticism
shed had, and accepted the whole Undara situation at face-value. She would get Karen
to pop in from the classroom occasionally to check on her Dad, but no doubt Narianne
would soon be back to take Hazels place.
!n the meantime, she was going to drive down and see poor Stans widow while Bob
was out to it, and give her whatever comfort she could. Shed see Hazel later, and God
Bless her!
Hazel, felt much happier about leaving the homestead for a spell now, and immedi-
ately went off to her room to prepare herself for the astral ]ourney. Within a matter of ten
minutes or so, she had left her slumbering form and was seeking out Narianne.
But the scene she encountered as she arrived at the side of Nariannes astral form,
was one of total horror and carnage!
Thus far the three men had managed to hold the hideous reptiles at bay, but they
were now fast running out of ammunition. Several times, bolder spirits among their
enemies had actually launched themselves in suicide attacks upon their resisting prey,
only to die in the attempt. Their stinking befouled bodies were beginning to pile up
around the three grim-faced men, three or four deep, but still their survivors came on to
continue the relentless pressure. Thus far Narianne had managed to stay her hand and
had not intervened, but now that the men supply of ammunition was falling low, she
could not hold off her intervention much longer.
Hazel was utterly petrified by the bloody and sickening scene of carnage at first, but
when she saw Errol struggling to remain on his feet, despite his absolute deathly weari-
ness, she felt the spiritual force soar within her.
We must someIn1ng, Narianne!" she said into her companions mind, ! know
that you made this agreement of nonintervention with the Light Beings, but do not forget
that ! was not a party to any such agreement! !f I now come along and take a hand in
all this, they can hardly blame you, or say that you have betrayed their trust, can they?"
Narianne thought about this. !t made sound sense, always providing that the Light
Entities were n! listening in to their present telepathic conversation! However, in view of
her earlier decision to intervene when it became absolutely necessary, without regard for
the agreement, she decided to permit Hazel to try her hand alone.
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This in itself was no light undertaking, since Hazel had never acted alone before and
was therefore an unknown quantity in terms of demonstrating her own personal astral
power and spiritual courage before such a horde of malevolent spirits. But everyone had
to undergo their own baptism of fire - and this would have to be Hazels! But Narianne
also reasoned with clear cold logic, that, should Hazel herself find herself being over-
whelmed, then she would be entirely ]ustified in coming to nI /IIns assistance, without
breaching her agreement regarding the three men!
With a brilliant smile of encouragement, she patted Hazels shoulder and told her to
go ahead. Summon up your power, Hazel!" she cried telepathically, And send them back
to whatever hell they rose from! GO FOPTH - AOW!" and so bidding, she gave Hazel a
mighty spiritual push toward the terrible scene of battle.
The men were reeling upon their last legs now, and any second might see them
finally buried under a screeching, rending and tearing heap of the grisly horrors they
faced so stoically. The old professor was quite prepared to meet his Naker He had fought
the good fight, and having done all he was now prepared to stand and accept his end as
Christ had on the Cross. He pushed the last few rounds into the chamber of his burning-
hot revolver and forced himself upright, in unadulterated agony, to stand at the last upon
his feet. With is teeth clenched tightly against the searing pain, he raised his arm rock-
firm and aimed it squarely at the mass of hideous, mewling, snarling faces before him. His
voice boomed forth in full baritone strength. 5coIs wa nae w1 WaIIace
Ied..WeeIcome Iae yer gory ed or Iae V1cIory!
Drew and Errol stared at the fine old fellow, who looked as though he had ]ust risen
from the grave beside them, his gaunt, pain-ravaged features set in a grim expression of
final commitment. Then they both felt the same tug of their own Scottish genes within
them and ]oined him in his iron resolve - and in the brave words of the old war-chant by
Rabbie Burns, which told of Robert Bruces victorious battle against the invading English at
Bannockburn in 131+.
The three of them now stood erect and firm, shoulder to shoulder ..IeI us do, or
d1e! Then as they began to blaze away their last remaining rounds, making every shot
count, their enemies rushed forward, whooping and baying like a pack of hounds from
hell, and leapt upon them! But, at the same instant that they felt the foul claws and teeth
begin to tear at their flesh, the three men were suddenly dazzled by a blinding irradiation
of blue-white light which seemed to flash down from above and behind them. Errol, who
was already on his knees under the weight of a dozen of the horrible savagely slashing
and biting brutes, caught one swift glimpse of its source before he slumped to the gory
stone floor unconscious and close to dying. 1! was nIs DIv HazeI, nw n mI
Dm as a mIgn!) angI ! !aK nIm ! Havn1
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Drew saw her too, as did Chas - who, like Errol, thought her to be an angel from
Heaven come at last to take him Home. The monstrous creatures saw her too, and they
began to fall back screaming in agony at the terrible burning rays of her mighty astral
power. But the ma]ority of them couldnt retreat quickly enough, the rays began to burn
through them turning them into blackened, curling shells of crumbling smoking carbon.
Nor did their hideous mates, or their vicious offspring, survive the sustained blaze of
glorious astral energy. Within a matter of seconds over half the whole hive of vile crea-
tures had been reduced to a litter of smouldering blackened shells, up and down the
surrounding tunnel and its ad]acent cavern system!
The men could only crouch against the wall of the tunnel in ab]ect awe before such
a staggering display of pure spiritual power.
Then the great brilliant image of Hazel suddenly vanished and Drew realizing that
some of their enemies had escaped back down the tunnel, had the presence of mind to
look to his fallen companions. Poor Chas looked obviously dead, but Errol seemed, mi-
raculously, still to be breathing. He crouched low and gathered his friend into his arms.
Then, hefting him over his aching shoulder, he set off at a stumbling run, in the direction
they had originally been going.
Faintly he could detect the sounds of the remnants of the pack yelling in the dis-
tance behind him. Good God forbid! The ferocious little fiends were back upon their trail
again! He stared through blood-flecked eyes into the blackness ahead, barging against
the unseen walls and slipping upon the appalling filth beneath his feet for his helmet and
torch had long been lost in the fray, and his already-tattered and worn-out boots had been
torn off his feet, as the creatures had fought each other to be the first to chew upon his
bleeding toes!
Big as he was, Drew knew that he could not carry Errol far. His strength was all but
spent, but he would struggle on to the very death. At least it would be easier for Errol, he
was half dead already, and completely out to it! He himself would ]ust have to grin and
bear it...And then - HALLELUJAH!
Suddenly, the blond young giant, staggering and stumbling under the weight of his
wounded companion, found himself emerging from the almost stygian darkness of the
tunnel. He pushed on toward a densely interwoven screen of dangling tropical lianas and
vine leaves that delineated a faint pearly semicircle of light. At last he could s agaIn!
But he wasnt out of danger yet. He could hear their feet pattering and splashing along
the long black passage behind him, their calls and whoops echoing back into the depths
as they hounded him down. A final supreme effort of brute strength, and he burst through
the matted tangle and out into the open, beneath a pale wintry sky. Before him he could
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see a wide, open grassy area edged on both sides with tall spindly-looking trees, and
ahead lay a broken outcrop of red rock. That would have to do. He was tiring rapidly and
was desperately in need of some sort of cover where he might be able to rest awhile -
even if only for a few minutes.
He charged, gasping out loud in agony and weariness, across the open clearing
through a deep carpet of lush, mauve-green grass, and clambered up the sharp, un-
weathered rock, panting and blowing like a grampus, trying to hold his friends bloodied
body over one shoulder whilst using his free hand to grasp at the razor-like edges of the
stone slabs. Ny God, how they nuI!! At the top of the outcrop, he paused, dripping blood
from gashed hands and feet, to risk a quick glance behind him. Surely his pursuers must
be almost upon him now! To his amazement, they were n!! He looked back at the
almost concealed tunnel entrance, and could ]ust discern the vague movements of a host
of gesticulating, brown lizard-like forms behind the screen of vine stems and leaves. He
could hear their vicious hissing screams of rage and frustration quite clearly, even from
here.
Why had they stopped? Another hundred yards and they could be upon him and
his poor battered friend, tearing and slashing them with sharp fangs and talons. But
something was preventing them from following him. Wna!7 Then suddenly it hit him.
Could it be the IIgn!? Were they afraid to venture out of the deeply-shadowed gloom?
That was !T! They ]ust couldnt stand the L!GHT! Now as he looked back more closely,
he could see that two of the demonic, filthy, scaly creatures had rushed headlong through
the mat of vines after him. They were now staggering blindly about, squealing in pain,
covering their hideous slitted eyes with taloned forepaws. Even as he watched, they both
finally blundered back in among the dangling lianas to re]oin their foul hadean brethren
within. Thank God for that! At least, a respite - /I nw!
Painfully, Drew lowered himself
down the other side of the ]utting outcrop. His cut and bleeding feet feeling for footholds
beneath him until they struck a flattish stone platform. Then he was down, and in some
sort of safe cover - at least for the moment. Now he carefully lowered his friends bloody
and bruised body down upon the smooth cool rock, propping his poor torn back against a
stone slab. Urgently he crouched forward and placed his ear against his friends chest.
At least he was still breathing, and his heartbeat was still reasonably regular. Thank
God for small mercies! Now he was free to slump down to a sitting position and lean back
himself. God alone knew where they were, and how they were going to survive this
horrifying experience!
After a moment or two of blissful rest, he examined his unconscious friend to assess
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what damage he had sustained. Thankfully, after a brief overall check, he found that,
apart from a multitude of deeply clawed lacerations and several large severe contusions to
Erbs head and body, nothing seemed to be broken. He would live, all right, but hed be
in some pretty awful pain when he came round.
His own in]uries were not much less severe and his body was aching all over from
toting a limp 1+-stone man over his shoulder. Like Errol, hed lost a fair amount of blood
during the fight and their subsequent flight along the labyrinth of foul, fetid tunnels. Not
to mention the severe bruising theyd sustained in their frequent skids on the slimy, be-
fouled rock floor, and blunders into protruding rocks.
Now he could relax a little on that score. At least they were alive, and safe for the
time being. But where wI they? He peered around their location. Astoundingly, he
discovered that they were perched upon a wide ledge of stone overlooking a precipitously
deep gorge. He crept painfully forward on hands and knees to look over the edge of the
rock platform.
A sheer drop fell away below him for at least a thousand feet, ending in a deep-
looking river, edged with luxuriant tall trees and bushes. To one side, a little further along
the ledge, perhaps twenty or thirty yards, a stream flowed out through a gap in the
palisade of outcropping red stone, creating a mini-waterfall as it plunged off into the river
far beneath. At least they wouldnt die of thirst! Slowly, Drew raised his weary eyes to
scan the horizon beyond the other side of the gorge. But now he was really staggered!
THP WA5 AO HOP1ZON1 All he could see was a endless vista of mountain ranges
and gorges ascend1ng into a distant blue haze where they gradually became lost to view!
The land ]ust seemed to go on and on - upwards1
!t occurred to him that he must be suffering some form of delirium. Perhaps he
should rest up a while and try to snatch a few minutes sleep. !f their pursuers had
regrouped and followed them, they would surely have been upon them long before this.
Hed ]ust have to risk it. Tiredness swept over him in a gigantic wave. He lay back against
the rock slab next to Errol, and gazed up into the pale hazy white sky, where a faint sun
struggled to break through. !t was ]ust like being back in Scotland.
As he lay there reflecting upon such thoughts and images, his mind strayed back
over his life. A previous existence that hed almost forgotten in the horrendous place from
which they had ]ust escaped. He first recalled his home in the Queensland outback, and
then, suddenly, all the old memories began to return. His childhood and his father, a man
driven by ambition, whom he had only seen infrequently.. Ah, yes! !t was all coming
back to him now. Blurred childhood memories flooded through his mind as Drew slumped
back into a deep sleep..
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How long drew lay there in an exhausted sleep he had no way of knowing, for when
he awoke from his long, wonderful dreams of his childhood and his youth, the direction
and strength of the soft daylight hadnt changed one iota! Then it all came flooding back
- what had so recently happened to him and why he was wnIvI he now was! The
terrible pursuit through the tunnels slammed back into his mind in a gigantic hammer
blow of vivid recollection. The tremendous, hideous battle in the tunnel! The brilliant
radiance of a familiar-looking enormous female angel! The rousing, gallant song of his
dying old Scottish professor!
Poor, dear old Chas! What a tremendously brave bloke hed turned out to be! And
now he was gone! But hed died a warriors death, singing his blooming head off! God
bless the great old bloke! He thought of Chass battered body lying in the darkness,
wondering if he could possibly retrieve it and give him a decent burial.
Then he recalled Errol. He was sure hed brought nIm out - hadnt he? He looked
around from where he lay, and saw that Errol was there - but was he OK? He swiftly bent
sideways and laid an ear against his friends bare and blood-encrusted chest. He was s!III
alive, thank God! And his ticker was gIng s!Ing, too! He tried shaking Errol into
wakefulness, but it was to no avail, he was really out for the count. Taken quite a
hammering, poor guy." Said Drew out loud, But youve got plenty of guts! Good on you,
mate!" he said, ruffling his unconscious pals matted auburn locks. All we need now is
some water to get rid of all this blood, filth and crud!"
He stood up and glanced down over the edge of the cliff on which they were perched.
There was the great gorge hed seen when...yesterday? !t must have been yesterday,
because the sun had obviously set and risen again to the same point in the sky.Ye Gods!
That meant that he and Errol had slept a whole IwenIy-1our nours!
!t was as he stood up that he spotted the little stream a short distance away along
the ledge, which caused a little waterfall as it shot out off the ledge down into the deep
gorge. Drew tore off a piece of his already-tattered shirt and, bunching it up into a wad,
he soaked it in the lovely cool water. He swabbed his face and arms with it and felt that
same tingling, effervescent quality hed experienced once before - Thats right! Yes! He
remembered now! !t was in a big, lighted cavern, and thered been a whole river of this
same magical water flowing through it - But, hang on a minute! That had been weeks
ago - before they went into the whirlpool! He was pretty sure thered been a big whirl-
pool..?
Anyhow! This was really terrific! He finished washing himself down, then he drank
a deep draught of the water out of his two large, cupped hands. Ah! That was great! !t
was ]ust the shot! Pure nectar! He drank some more, and then, for good measure he
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sluiced another great double handful over his head and face. He gasped at its icy cold-
ness, but he suddenly felt wide awake, and a whole lot better!
Then he thought about Errol. Couldnt hurt to wash the poor bloke down a bit. !t
might take away some of the stiffness and pain hed be sure to feel when he woke up. He
washed all the dried blood off Errols body with the makeshift cotton washcloth, and finally
tried sluicing some water over his face, but still Errol slumbered on. Never mind!" Drew
told himself. Hell wake when hes ready!"
Now he looked back across the rocks to the cave from which he had emerged - the
place where those viciously demonic-reptile things had chased him out of the tunnel, and
where theyd been so violently repelled by the light. And yet, now he looked up at the
light, it wasnt all !na! bright, it was very much like the sort of light hed grown used to in
Scotland - a pale, diffused white light. Naybe it was because of the clouds? That must be
it! He stared up directly at the sun, but, for some unaccountable reason, it didnt hurt his
eyes like it used to. Sure it was bright, but not really any brighter than a sixty-watt electric
light bulb when you stared at it! And you could even see beyond it right across to the
..Holy Smokel
Suddenly he realized that he was staring directly upwards at some kind of misty
!pgIapnIaI map / !n wII1 Drews mind raced. He recalled seeing artists impres-
sions of this same view! Could it really be !Iu? Or was all of this entire thing ]ust some
gigantic nightmare? He deliberately clenched his fists tightly and shut his eyes tightly
too. !ll count up to a hundred and then, if its s!III there, !ll DIIv it!" He began
counting steadily, tightening his clenched fists until his nails sank painfully into the balls of
his palms..ninety-eight, ninety-nine - A HUNDRED!
His eyes snapped open and the awesome scene remained exactly the same. He
looked at his hands and saw the blood trickling from the pressure-gashes left by his
]agged fingernails. That looked real enough. So this wasn! a dream, he was wI awaK!
As he turned his gaze upward again, he now knew with complete certainty that what he
was seeing was the ppsI! nmIspnI of the !NNER EARTH!
How long he sat there staring across at the misty delineations of continents seas and
islands, he still found it very hard to accept the fact that it was all absolutely true, and that
hed actually made it into the Hollow Earth. He wished fervently that Errol would hurry up
and awaken so that he could share this incredible moment with him. Oh, and nw he
wished that poor Chas had survived to actually see their lifelong contention finally proved
to be true, beyond any shadow of a doubt! The professor was to have been the vital link
in establishing the existence of this inner world - an undeniable and irrefutable witness to
their discovery! Now who would ever believe their own unsupported word?
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He remembered then his earlier thought of making a quick dash back inside to try
and retrieve the professors body. !t was possible that the creatures might have retreated
back down the tunnel again - especially since Hazels brilliant larger-than-life astral image
had blasted their nesting-hive to ashes with her radiative emission. Of course, they might
have taken Chass body back with them to eat - or, on the other hand, they might not! As
far as hed been able to make out, the hideous things liked their prey live and full of hot
blood!
And even if the professors body had been taken, there were the backpacks to be
retrieved, since they has some useful gear in them, as well as a few Survival ration packs.
The biggest problem was how the purple blazes was he going to see in there without a
torch? He recalled dropping his own, as he ran with Errol over his shoulder, so it could be
anywhere by now. !t really was a heck of a problem. !f only he had a torch!
Suddenly, as this last thought flashed through his mind, another, greater one blazed
brilliantly across it. YuI wa) wIII D IIgn!1 He stopped right there in mid-thought.
Eh? Where did that come from?" he asked himself. !nstantly, the same thought came
back again, but much more powerfully. Almost like a voice roaring within his head!
YOUR WAY W!LL BE L!GHTED! HAvE NO FEAR - YOU NAY ENTER !N SAFETY! YOUR
FR!END L!vES! "
Drew reeled backwards at the sudden impact of this dazzling announcement inside
his brain. There was no doubt about it! Hed heard a distinctly human female voice - and
one that he knew well! !t was the voice of Marianne! He stared around himself in
amazement half expecting to see her standing behind him. But no one was to be seen
except Errol and he was still profoundly asleep. Then it occurred to him that if the girls
were able to pro]ect their Imags with such impressive effect - why shouldnt they be able
to pro]ect their thoughts? From what hed gathered, telepathy was one of the more
commonly ap! forms of ESP, far more so than a visual image pro]ection.
He decided to test this belief. He stood stock still, with his eyes screwed tightly
shut, his shoulders hunched and his fists clenched. 1s !na! YOU, MaIIann7" he shouted
in his mind, with every ounce of mental power he could muster. He waited a second or
two, and then, much to his intense wonderment, her voice came echoing back into his
mind. Ys, m) Iv1 1! Is 11 Nw as 1 nav !I )u, aI naI!, n Is aIIv, Du! nI)
)us!1 Tn wa) Is IaI an 1 wIII guI )u1 HuII)1
Drew was beside himself with an overwhelming sense of ]oy. Hed actually made it!
Now for Chas! He took a final look at Errol, and wedge a couple of largish stones on either
side of his body, to ensure that, if he woke suddenly, he wouldnt roll straight off the ledge.
Then he ran back across the clearing of mauve-green grass, and after steeling himself at
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the vine-curtained entrance, plunged on through their trailing stems into the mouth of the
tunnel. Sure enough, it was lit with that same brilliant blue-white radiance he had seen
three times before! There was no sign of any of his former adversaries. He picked his
way carefully among the filthy ordure that littered the floor of the passageway, and, upon
turning a slight bend in the tunnel, he saw Nariannes great glowing form a few dozen
yards further along. As he looked up on her beautiful radiant face, she smiled down upon
him and pointed with her hand to where the huddled form of the professor lay huddled
against the side wall.
Drew found that Chas was half-buried under several of the dead reptile demons, as
also were their two almost-empty backpacks - which probably accounted for why neither
Chas or the packs had been taken by their enemies. He found the easiest way to carry the
packs was to place one inside the other. As he was stooping to do so, he also found two
torches lying on the ground, so he put them inside the outer pack too.
Now after a quick glance up and down the passage, and a grateful loving smile at
Nariannes glorious astral face, he first donned the backpack, then stooped to gather up
the professors huddled body in his arms. He marched back along the tunnel with
Nariannes bright radiance directly behind him, lighting his way brilliantly. And as he
pushed his way awkwardly out through the screen of hanging vine-stems, he half-turned
to gain a parting glimpse of her. TnanK )u, MaIIann1" he called within his mind. 1 Iv
)u1"
And ! you!" she replied. FaI n!, m) aIs! n1 Yu wIII s m s, an
HazI, !1" Then suddenly, she dwindled down to a tiny brilliant orb of light which
winked out and disappeared from his sight.
Now he had to race the professor across toward the rock ledge. But rather than
place him on the risky exposed shelf of stone, now that there was no threat of the crea-
tures returning, he laid him down upon the lush curiously-coloured grass, with his back
resting against the trunk of one of the strange trees, beside the little stream that ran out
over the ledge. Hurriedly he opened the professors shirt and placed his ear against his
hairy chest. YES! There was a faint fluttering heartbeat, thank God!
Sadly, he had nothing to treat the poor old bloke with - not even an aspirin.. Hey!
Wait a minute! Ys n na1 He recalled how theyd included a FIIs!-AI KI! in each of their
packs, but they had thus far completely overlooked them - probably because they hadnt
n them, until it was too late to try and dig them out! He rummaged around in his
own pack and found his First-Aid kit - brand-new and unopened! !nside it he found a
respectable little range of emergency drugs, together with a manual for their usage.
Among them, he found a small ]ar of glyceryl trinitrate - a powerful vasodilator for use in
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cases of heart-failure or angina pain.
!t was worth a try! All he had to do was place one tablet under Chass tongue, and
it would be absorbed directly into his tissue and thus into his bloodstream! However, at
his first attempt, he found that Chass mouth was as dry as a sunstruck bone. So he had
to fill a graduated-glass he found in the kit with water from the stream and trickle a little
into his mouth, as he did so, Chass autonomic reaction was to swallow the water, so he
gave him some more. Then having moistened his mouth he placed a tablet underneath
the professors tongue. The result was almost magical!
He allowed a few seconds to pass by, making sure that Chas didnt ]ust swallow the
tablet, then he again applied his ear to his chest. The dear old guys heart was now
pounding away like a trip-hammer, and his breathing was much deeper.
As Drew watched anxiously, Chas began to stir fitfully, muttering to himself. Then,
quite suddenly, his eyes flicked open, and he clasped his forehead with a slight groan.
Ach! Nah puir bluidy heid! Ets splitting in twa!" Then he noticed a figure crouching
before him and struggled to focus his bleary eyes. !s that yerself, Andrae?" he cried
croakily. Whats haippened tae ma heid, laddie! Ah feel like Ahve been whacked wi the
back of a battleaxe! Goad! Ahve no had a heidache the like o thes sence a got mah
Naisters degree!"
Yair, well dont worry about it , Chas!" said Drew. ! ]ust gave you an angina tablet
thats dilated all your arteries, including the ones in your brain! !tll soon pass, then youll
feel a whole lot better! !ts better than being a, any day, old son!"
Chas thanked him for that, then he asked him for a drink of water. Drew recalled
saving some empty water-bottles in his pack. !t only took a second to fill one from the
stream and Chas was soon glugging away for all he was worth.
After that the professor started to recover with great rapidity. And with his recovery
came a flood of questions. What en the Name o Thunder haippened en yonder cave,
Andrae - and how on Eirth ded we get ootside again sae soon? Ah can only recall that we
were bein attaicked by an airmy o yon wee brown deevils, an Ah failt like Ah was deein!
Whaire the Heill are we onnyway? Ah feel like Ahve deed an goan tae Haiven! This
isnae 5a!Ian, be anny chance, es it? Yon looks verra like mah hame sky!" He waved
an enthusiastic hand up at the white sky overhead.
Drew laughed, and told him the
awful truth. Awful that was, of course, from the professors point of view. ! hate to have
to tell you this, my dear old sir, but youre now sitting InsI !n aI!ns nIIw In!III!
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And if you dont believe me, Professor, ]ust take a good hard look up at the sky!"
Chas did as he was bidden, and his ]aw fell when he saw the forms and contours of
continents and seas faintly etched upon what should have been empty blue sky, up through
the clouds, and beyond the sun itself!
Nan! What are ye telling me? !t canna be! !t ]oost anna be! This is some sairt o
optical illusion, surely!" But he knew that it wasnt, and that he couldnt deny the clear
evidence of his own eyes.
Just then, Drews moment of triumph was interrupted by a deep groan from the
other side of the rocks. He hurried around the end of them, where the little stream ran
through, and found Errol struggling to sit up, and staring wildly about himself. His eyes
fell upon Drew, and he gasped a great sigh of relief.
Gee Whizz, buddy! Am ! ever glad to see you! ! woke up a coulpa minutes back
and found myself lying here on the edge of a whopping great precipice, back out on the
surface again, and ! was ]ust beginning to wonder if !d.."
Died and gone to Heaven?" suggested Drew, with a big grin.
Well, yeah! Something like that, buddy - or maybe to Limbo, perhaps! Finding
myself alone and all, and nothing in front of me except a kinda miniature Colorado Can-
yon! Holy Smoke, buddy, but ! hurt all over! What happened? Did ! get run over by an
express train or something?"
Drew then had to quickly fill him in regarding the battle and its amazing outcome,
their flight, leaving Chas presumed killed, and then his telepathic communication with
Narianne, and his return to fetch the professor, who was no alive, sitting up, and taking
notice! Plus the fact that hed ]ust revealed the awful truth to the old fellow that they
were now a!uaII) InsI !n HIIw aI!n!
This news was almost as great a shock to Errol as it had been to Chas. Hey! You
dont say, buddy!" yelled Errol. We actually ma I! !nIugn - the hard way, too! Well,
GII) B! Whod have ever thought it, eh!" He was still sounding off about it as Drew
helped him unsteadily to his feet and guided him along the ledge, and around into the
grassy area to greet Chas. Judging by the ease with which Errol ended his little walk, his
sleep had been a wonderfully healing one, and a couple of long drinks from the stream of
effervescent water set the final seal upon the process.
However, both Errol and Chas still bore a great number of deep cuts an bites, as
indeed, did Drew himself. So there was a lot of mutual First-Aid treatment, including the
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administration of anti-tetanus shots and liberal dabbing of iodine to be got through before
they could finally settle down and dig out three of their last survival ration packs. But
they made a real bean-feast of the occasion. After all, it wasnt vI) day one got to
celebrate ones arrival wI!nIn !n EarIns 1nIer1or!
After their comparatively sumptuous repast was over, they all sat back and admired
the view - unconsciously awaiting the onset of evening and a good nights sleep. That
was, until Drew reminded them that they were now in a world of perennial daylight! This
was a very hard concept for any of them to get their heads round. How on Earth - on In
it - were they ever going to be able to keep track of time?
True, Drew and Errol both sported expensive watches, which told the date and even
included built-in compasses, but they still only worked on twelve-hour cycles, and the
compasses were really of little use, since there didnt appear to be any polar regions as
such, according to what they could see of the land and sea surfaces overhead and
around them! They assumed that they were still in the Southern hemisphere of the
planet, but even this meant relatively little, since both hemispheres en]oyed the same
continuous season all the year round - at least as far as they could ]udge, and as common
sense seemed to dictate.
Well, fellers!" said Drew, after most of these immediate conundrums had been
addressed but few actually answered. We come finally to the most burning question of
all! Where the Heck do we go from Here? As far as ! can see one direction is pretty much
as good as another. Except straight ahead, which leads to a thousand-foot drop!"
Naybe we should make for the nearest village or town?" said Errol. Who knows,
they might even speak ngIIsn, and direct us toward their principal city? They probably
have some sort of BIg Cns", like our US President, whod no doubt be delighted to
meet visitors from the external world, and will give us the freedom of the whole shebang!"
Yair!" replied Drew. But what if their Head Sherang knows all about what a shambles
weve made of the outside world, and doesnt want a bar of us? What would he do with
us? Deport us, or chuck us in the local ]ail? Or even have us quietly bumped off? He might
see us as some sort of threat to their security! ! mean, if youve had it really great for
thousands of years, you wouldnt want a mob of stirrers coming in from the Outer Limits"
preaching the gospel of hate and distrust, or discontent and strife, such as we have on the
outside, would you?"
Here Chas put in his two cents worth. Noo, but Ahd be far more consairned aboot
the likelihood o us being carriers o diseases an viruses, such as even we dinna ken we
might be carryin oan us! Even the common cold could verra weel be enough tae gallop
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through these people like wildfire! Et haippen wi baith America and Australia when the
fairst white fellers and Europeans sait foot upon their shores! The indiginous populations
deed oot like bluidy flies wi TB an influenza, noat tae mention the pox anall sairts oyether
felthy whorin diseases! Aye! Ahd suggest that we should keep oor destance, until were
sure!"
This turn of the conversation was beginning to depress Drew considerably, so he
tried to steer it into pleasanter waters. Of course, said he, theres always the good
chance that theyll turn out to be light-years in front of us, in terms of civilization and
technology - AND medicine, too! !ts quite possible that theyd shove us through some
sort of a bacterial and viral Delousing" unit, burn our clothes, and kit us out with new
gear! Then perhaps they take us on the Two-BobTour of the whole kit and kaboodle!
Naybe wed better wait and see what happens! Personally, ! have a funny feeling that
they already know were here, and are ]ust letting us get used to being here before
welcoming us into the fold!"
As Drew said this, Nariannes voice spoke gently inside his head. Tn) do Knw1
Jus! s!a) wnI )u aI, DIw1 1 mus! g nw, Du! HazI wIII !aK vI sn1"
Drew realized that he hadnt mentioned his new telepathic link with Narianne,
But he decided that he might be wiser to keep quiet about it for a while. Chas, for
one would probably think hed gone right round the bend! Naybe hed wait a while until
Hazel was in touch with Errol.
Anyhow," he continued, ! vote that we stay put, for today at least, and scout
around the immediate vicinity for signs of life tomorrow. Then, if we dont strike any local
inhabitants, well have to wander further afield. Ah! What !d give for a decent !Isp
]ust about now!"
How would a pair of binocs" suit you, Drew?" said Errol. ! have a faint suspicion
that ! might ]ust have secreted a pair in my backpack when we first started! Lets ]ust
have a peek in my pack!" Drew stood aside whilst he rummaged around the few trifling
bits and pieces in his pack.
Aha!" cheered Errol, pulling out a small flat package about the size of a couple of
cigarette-packs stuck together out of one of the side-pockets. They were the latest thing
in state-of-the-art binoculars, very compact, but you can see for miles with èm! NASA
endorsed, of course!"
Of course!" grinned Drew. You bloody beauty, mate!" He took the opened and
proffered binoculars from Errol and tried them out. He trained them right up at the far
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distant view of the inner earth exactly opposite to their location and was astonished at the
magnification and clarity they afforded. Where the Hell did you get these, Erb!" he cried.
Theyre absolute bloody rippers!" He winced slightly as a mild ]olt of electric-like pain hit
his forebrain, reminding him hed sworn twice. Obviously Narianne had told Hazel to
monitor their language again!
He carried on for a second or two scanning the surrounding landscape seeking signs
of habitation.
As he did so, Chas raised a minor point about what hed said earlier. By the way,
Andrae," he said earnestly - but with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. What ye were
sayin airlier aboot us s!a)Ing pu! !a), Du! I/ w anna /In ann)!nIn In !n mInIng,
wII saIn /aII!nI a/II !n a) a/!I"? Dye mind tellin me hoo the Heill were goin
tae deefferentiate between today, tomorrow or the bluidy day after that, when theres na
//In at a between today and tomorrow, hereaboots?"
Drew had to admit to himself that hed got that one stuffed up well and truly. How-
ever he was not one to be beaten that easily in a nonsensical argument.
Ah, yes!" he improvised, But youre not taking account of cIocR-I1me, Chas!" He
tapped his wristwatch sagely, and nodded enigmatically at Errol. Errol played along with
him. He also nodded very solemnly, and indicated his wristwatch.
!t now became Chass turn to be made to look like the dummy.
Aye! Joost so!" he said at length, after looking closely from one of them to the other.
Pairhaps Ahll hae tae gang awa and conseeder et a wee bet further!" Then he strolled
off across the lush carpet of mauve-green turf, nonchalantly whistling softly the 5K)
Ba! 5ng to himself.
Drew and Errol had to fight really hard not to burst forth into ribald laughter.
However, they werent chuckling for long. Chas suddenly called back to them, point-
ing at something that he`d ]ust noticed at some fair distance away in the pale sky.
What dye make o yon weird oab]ect up en the sky oer theere?" he shouted.
They both spun around, and Drew swiftly clapped the binoculars to his eyes, sus-
pecting a return leg-pull" from the professor. But what he saw approaching their position
was something that really staggered him.
He handed the glasses to Errol. Tell me, Errol, mate," he said, in as matter-of-fact a
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voice as he could, under the circumstances. !s !na! what ! !nInK it is?"
Errol studied the ob]ect very carefully, but with visibly growing excitement. !f you
mean that goddamn great 1Iy1ng-saucer, thats heading s!IaIgn! !waI us, !d tend to
agI with you, buddy!" he said, giving Drew a huge, excited grin.
Then they stood and wondered with bated breath as they watched this amazing and
beautiful craft - their very first physical contact with this new inner world - glide smoothly
to an instant stop immediately above them, and begin its descent, slowly and soundlessly
down on to the thick grassy sward, right in front of them!
This was the great moment that Drew and Errol had dreamed about for years - and
it was now finally about to come Irue!
Having been relieved from her vigil over the men, and having seen all three of them
now safely out upon the surface of the inner world, Narianne returned to her sleeping
body at Glengarry, and immediately awoke to a room flooded with brilliant afternoon
sunlight, but thankfully, without the sweltering, sticky summer heat she would have en-
countered in the pre-air-conditioned days of yore!
Hazel had updated her on the latest developments back here, so she was able to go
out into the lounge and kitchen knowing more or less what to expect. Bob lay back dozing
peacefully on the settee, wearing his glasses and his fingers still holding the hefty book
hed been reading prior to dropping off to sleep, although it had fallen, still open, across
his chest. Narianne automatically went to lift it off him and remove his skewed glasses
which were digging into his nose and cheek. She was surprised to note hed been
reading a history of Australian aboriginal legends. Bob had rather struck her as the sort
of guy who might read - I/ n Ia an)!nIng a! aII, !nI !nan !n pInK IaIng II/!u! guI
/Im !n IaI papI - the Livestock Breeders News or the Farmers Nachinery catalogue.
However, she thought with unconscious appositives, it ]ust went to show that one could
never ]udge a book by its cover,.
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As she was doing this Joan came in from the kitchen. Ah! Youre back!" she smiled
with genuine pleasure at seeing Narianne up and about again. ! hope the boys are still
safe and well, dear? !t does worry me so to think of them down there in those dangerous
tunnels and all that awful darkness!"
Narianne was able to set her mind at rest on that score. Well you dont need to
worry anymore, Joan, for the present at least, because theyve all made it safely out onto
the surface again, at the other end!"
Oh! Thank Goodness!" sighed Joan, with infinite relief. Theyll soon be home again
then, ! expect!"
Then Narianne had to remind her of their mission to find their way through to the
inner crustal surface of the Earth, and that they were now around a thousand miles down
beneath their feet! This dismayed Joan considerably, but she soon cheered up again
when Narianne told her how theyd been laughing and ]oking with Chas when shed left
them. ! still find it so hard to grasp that you can actually go off in the astral like that so
suddenly and find them right away, as you and Hazel seem to do! At one time, you know,
love, she went on, if youd told people the things youve told me about all this, theyd
probably have burned you at the stake for being a witch!"
Whos been burning steaks?" grunted a sleepy voice from the settee, as Bob,
stretched out these arms and yawned widely. Then he sat up, and looked at the two
women. Whats for lunch? Did you say we were havin a barbie, Joan? ! could ]ust go a
nice ]uicy tee-bone steak, with all the trimmings!"
Oh, shut up you greedy pig!" said Joan, with a laugh. You had your lunch over an
hour ago! !ts time for your needles now, anyway!" Bob groaned at the dread thought,
On, N1" he said in mock-fear. Not the bloody nIs again!" Then he turned to Nari-
anne and grinned, as Joan produced a stainless steel kidney-dish and took a nasty-looking
syringe out of it. You know, love, this was exactly what Joan was doing to me in Nackay
hospital when - whe- - Aagnnn!" his teeth clenched in a rictus of agony as the needle
plunged into his buttock. Wh - when ! first fell in love with my bloody nurse! Would]a
bloody believe.Ooonnn!" He stiffened again with pain as the second needle plunged
home.
There!" said Joan with grim satisfaction, dabbing a spot of blood off Bobs pierced
buttock with a piece of sterile lint. Thatll teach to watch your language in front of a
young lady, Bob Jackson, my lad!"
Then Bob called after her. Hey, Joan! did them fellers find anythin down at the
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outcrop, at all?"
Joan paused by the kitchen door, and looked back a little abstractedly. You know, !
never even !nugn! about them! ! suppose they must have called in on their way back to
Longreach, before ! got home again from seeing Stans wife." She looked mildly puzzled.
Youd have thought theyd have at least had the courtesy to leave us a note or a message,
wouldnt you?"
Never mind!" said Bob !ll ask my head-stockman what they said. Would you mind
askin Larry to drop in and see me for a minute, if hes around?"
Joan nodded, still looking bemused.
Hey! That reminds me, love." added Bob. Howd]a go with Stans missus?"
Oh, she took it on the chin like a real Tro]an!" answered Joan. ! doubt if T could
have been so brave, had it been the other way round! She was very grateful about the
wages, by the way, Bob, and she asked me to tell you `TnanKs vI) mun!"
Bloody least we could do for poor old Stan." Bob said, sadly. Jimmy didnt have
any family at all, so theres not much we could do for him, poor little bugger! Not even a
body to bury!" But Joan had gone off into the kitchen.
!t was then that they heard a vehicle pull up out in the yard outside.
Funny!" said Bob Never heard that comin down the drive, did you?"
Narianne shook her head. No - not unless its those guys you were talking aboot
]ust coming back from the outcrop."
Which was exactly who it did turn out to be - but with a wonderful surprise!
The first man to clamber out of the back of the vehicle was little JImm) OPuIK!
He raced across to the house ]ust as Joan opened the door. True, he looked rather the
worse for wear, his clothes badly torn, he bore a lot of scratches and bruises, and he stank
to high Heaven of the reptilians feral odor, but, otherwise he was fit and well, as was
betokened by the big flashing grin of white teeth that lit up his almost black face. He
leapt up the steps three at a time, and stopped in front of Joan.
Gday, missus!" he said cheerfully. Them fellers ]ust give me a lift back!"
Joan was utterly delighted to see him alive and in one piece. She gave him a big
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hug, despite the foul stench that surrounded him in an almost putrid miasma. The police
sergeant and the officials had now emerged from the vehicle and were talking to the
head-stockman. Then, after a moment of earnest discussion, they turned and came up
the steps behind Jimmy. Joan handed Jimmy one of Bobs soiled shirts in exchange for his
stinking, tattered one, and then ushered them all into the lounge to see Bob.
Bob was so over]oyed to see Jimmy that he leapt up off the lounge like a two-year
old. BI) HII, JImm)1" He yelled, laughing out loud. We thought you were a bloody
goner! Where the Hell have you bloody been - skiving off with them bloody reptiles, have
yer - ]udgin by the bloody png on yer!" He was utterly delighted, like a dog with two
tails, to see that one of his two yardmen had survived, and tears of relief were already
glistening upon his worn cheeks.
Yeah, Boss!" said Jimmy, still grinning. Them lizard-fellers stole me away, an kept
me down someplace in the ground - until the Wand]ina come an tell èm let me go!" He
laughed at the memory. They was sure scared of the Wand]ina! He make èm altogether
go bugger-up!"
As Jimmy spoke, the head-stockman and the three officials came in behind him and
stood listening. Bob nodded at them. Then he turned his attention back to Jimmy
You mean some big god-feller" came into their place an made èm let you go,
Jimmy?" asked Bob, incredulously.
Yair, boss!" laughed Jimmy. These great big shinin white fellahs come in an point
at me. You go!" they told me in my head. Then he point at lizard-fellers an they all start
]umpin round like cockies been sprayed! ! got out of there an one Wand]ina stay with
me till ! come out of hole. Then he tell me in head You go home, now!" So ! go! Then
Larry an these fellers pick me up in the ute. An here ! be, Boss!" He flashed another big,
white-toothed smile at Bob.
What did these Wand]ina fellers look like, Jimmy?" queried Bob. Did they look like
me or Larry, there?"
No, Boss." Said Jimmy. They was great big fellers, two times big, and shine like
light!" here he pointed to the electric light-fitting above his head. they all look same-
same, but some have white whiskers, like short on they chins! But all young fellers, be like
Naster Drew!"
From Jimmys description, Narianne immediately recognized the guardian-angel
entities shed seen around Drew and the others when they were down the Pit - and of
whom, two had told her about the trials the men would have to face.
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But Bob was speaking again. Well, good on you, Jimmy! Sounds like you were very
lucky that the Wand]ina came an stuck their bibs in to save you! Now, you be a good lad
and go and get yourself showered good an put on some clean clothes, mate! You smell
like you fell down a dunny!" Bob gripped his nose between his thumb and forefinger and
grimaced, then he grinned at Jimmy, who sniffed under his armpit and laughed back.
Then he went off to the hands shower-room, leaving a powerful miasma of filth hanging
in the air. Joan then marched in and, with out regard for the visitors, sprayed a powerful
air-freshener around the room.
Gawd Strewth!" spluttered Bob, as the pungent scented fumes set all the men to
coughing and choking. Dunno which was worst! Smells like a bloody Algerian Knocking-
Shop in here now!"
His head-stockman, Harry Bedford, chuckled at this last. Reckon well have to take
your word for !na!, Bob!"
Well?" said Bob. did you fellers find anythin? - besides little Jimmy, that is, of
course! An if so, what are you goin to do about these bloody critters - whatever they
are?"
The police-sergeant elected himself as spokesman for them all.
Well, we did a fair bit of poking around, Bob, and we did find a couple of tunnels
still open, but we didnt come across any of these reptile things - well, n! aIIv anyhow!
But we did find a fair few a ùns around the site, so these people are taking two or
three of èm back to do some proper forensic examinations. They appear to be some sort
of brand-new species none of us has ever struck before. So well have to wait for their
reports. But it did look like something had gone off underground and killed èm. Bit like
one of those roach-bombs in its effect! The things had scurried out in droves, !d say!
Some of èm were still dying and wriggling a bit when we got there, so ! put paid to èm!"
He patted his pistol-holster. Not really much more ! can tell you, mate, but ! dont think
theyll be troublin you again! ! can see how they killed Stan so easy. You only have to
look at their bloody claws and fangs!" his three companions nodded their agreement.
TII m aDu! I!, ma!1" said Bob, with great feeling. Ah, well, it sounds like Jimmy
was fair-dinkum then about his Wand]inas", eh? Somebody once wrote that there were
a lot more rum things in the Earth than wed ever dreamed of!" he said, unwittingly
misquoting the Bard of Avon. ! guess he must have met up with some of these little
buggers in his travels, eh!"
Yes, ! guess he might have!" agreed the sergeant. But since that looks like it, now,
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! reckon !d better get these gentlemen back to Longreach, so they can catch their planes
home! ! doubt if youll have any more trouble, Bob, but if anything else s happen, ]ust
give me a yell and well maybe call in the Air Force to come and bomb that bloody outcrop
flat! And maybe napalm it at the same time, ]ust to be sure!" He laughed, and reached
out to shake Bobs hand. Let you know what we find out in the reports! Neanwhile well
be releasing Stans body tomorrow for a proper burial, so ! might see you at his send-off.
OK?"
Bob assured him that he would. Then, after shaking hands with the three experts,
he bade them all farewell, leaving Joan to see them off.
So!" he said to Narianne, who had paid close attention to the whole exchange.
What do you reckon about all that, my girl? ! wont hold me breath about not seein any
more of those things - but at least theyre the State Governments business now! Anyhow,
! might get a razor-wire fence put in around that outcrop ]ust to be on the safe side. But
the main thing is that JImm)s DaK with us again so we have to thankful for small mer-
cies!"
Then he surprised Narianne by asking her how Drew and the other two were doing.
Shed thought that Joan would have avoided telling him anything about her astral adven-
tures with Hazel, since he was such a hardheaded pragmatist.
Well," said she, it may surprise you to know, Bob, but theyre all oot on the inner
surface now, and theyve all survived pretty well! ! saw them myself only aboot two hoors
ago, and Hazels doon there right now, observing them! You DIIv m, aboot this,
dont you, Bob?" she asked him earnestly.
Why the hell snuIn! !?" responded Bob, much to her astonishment. !f Joan
accepts this psychic stuff as being for IaI, then !ll go along with her! Shes a pretty hard
nut to crack when it comes to that sort of spiritual stuff, but she believes that you and
Hazel really aI fair-dinkum, so ! guess 1 , too!" Then he added, with a sly grin, 1/ 1
Knw wna!s DI) g /I m1"
They both had a good laugh at that, and they were still smiling when Joan came
back into the room.
She looked very happy now. Well, ! think thats sorted everything out now, thank
Goodness, so we can perhaps get back to normal again now - at least as best we can, until
Drew, Errol and the Professor get back, anyhow! At least, from what you say, Narianne,
theyre all safe and well at the moment, arent they, and weve got little JImm) back safely,
too, which is a lot more than we could have expected! All weve got to get through now
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is 5!ans /unIaI, but his poor wife seems to be bearing up very well, considering, so
hopefully, that will all go off all right!"
By then, it was close to time for the evening meal, and Narianne ]oined the family at
the big kitchen table, and en]oyed her first proper dinner in days. Afterwards she sat with
the family for a while, but her thoughts kept wandering back to Drew, and what he was
doing now. !n the end, she decided to excuse herself and retired early. However, before
going to bed, she looked in on Hazel, whose Earthly form was still slumbering soundly.
After about eight or nine hours sleep, it was only a matter of time before the autonomic
alarm would soon start to sound in Hazels brain and her spirit would find itself being
recalled Home! Shed better get down there if she wanted to hear her on-the-spot
report!
After all the practice shed had of late, Narianne soon sent herself flashing across
time and space at thought-speed, and found herself almost instantly hovering beside her
friend. She was astounded to find that they were within some kind of spacecraft, which
was humming fairly gently around the concavity of the inner earths surface, at an altitude
of ]ust a couple of hundred feet above the general ground-level. Drew and his compan-
ions were seated in comfortable swivel-chairs, en]oying a fine three hundred and sixty
degree all-round view of the terrain they were crossing, and were pointing out to each
other some of the astonishing and wonderful things they were passing, as viewed through
the crystal-clear, transparent walls of the craft.
Hazel had obviously not received the expected call yet from her body, so they were
able to en]oy the scenery together for a while, as well as bring each other up to date on
occurrences on both sides of the Earths thousand-mile shell. Hazel was highly delighted
to hear of Jimmys safe return, and hoped that the authorities might now have finally
resolved the problems at Glengarry, once and for all. She told Narianne how the flying-
saucer-like spacecraft had arrived and had opened up to admit the three men, and how,
much to their surprise, theyd found it to be empty of any crew-members.
Apparently a disembodied voice, addressing them in perfect English, had welcomed
them aboard, and assured them that they would be safely transported to the central city,
where they were to be received by the guiding Council of Elders of this region of the !nner
Earth. !n the meantime, since there was no pressing urgency, they would be flown slowly
enough to take in some of the sights along the way.
The men had found bowls of strange new fruits and containers of liquid refresh-
ments already awaiting them, which the voice had assured them would not harm their
digestive tracts, being especially suited to their human dietary requirements and that they
would hopefully find them both refreshing and en]oyable. That this na proved to be so,
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was borne out by the half-empty state of the various dishes and translucent metal flasks!
Hazel opined telepathically to Narianne that she wished sn could sample some of
the delicious-looking fruits and sweetmeats herself, not having eaten for quite some time.
Of course, this was an entirely sub]ective response to the inviting appearance of the
refreshments, since a spirit requires no other nourishment than that ethereal energy
which is freely available throughout the universe!
Suddenly a third, masculine, voice ]oined in their telepathic conversation. AII sun
!nIngs an D aIIang, snuI )u s sII1" Hazel was staggered by this sudden
intrusion, and by the idea that some other entity was capable of listening in to their astral
conversations. Narianne was equally surprised, but not to the same extent. She had
suspected that since her own encounter with the Elders of the Light Beings, they would
have continued to monitor herself and Hazel, as well as the three men, even if only to
ensure that they received no material assistance in their final trial. Now it appeared that
shed been correct in her assumption!
She wondered if they had taken Hazels assistance during the last battle, or her own
final, personal guardianship of Drew as he had rescued Chas, as II! In!Ivn!Ins or
not? Still, it was too late now to worry about it, since the men were at this very moment,
being conveyed to a direct, and presumably physical, confrontation with the Council of
Elders, who would pass or fail them on !nII wn //I!s in their final ordeal. Shed have
to wait and see. However, even if they wI failed because of her, surely they might ]ust
be kind enough to help them return in safety on the outer surface smwnI - even if not
to Undara? All this of course, in the hope that they didnt still have )! an!nI ordeal to
face before reaching the city!
She was also interested by the passing remark that the voice had made to the men
of their being taken ! !n n!IaI I!) / In1s reg1on / !n 1nnI aI!n"! Did that
imply that the !nner World was divided into vaIIus spaIa! s!a!s I na!Ins, in a similar
way to their own external world? Perhaps this might be so, but they had long since
learned how to coexist together in peace and harmony? Her mind was thronged with a
myriad questions of this sort. But possibly the thought-monitoring entity, who had eaves-
dropped upon her mental conversation with Hazel, was incapable of picking up personal,
pIIva! thoughts. Perhaps this might be considered a big NO-NO" in this psychically-
attuned world?
Suddenly she realized that whilst she had been thus engaged in all this pointless
introspection and speculation, she had been missing the wonders of the changing scenery
that was steadily drifting past - or which their amazing craft was passing over and through!
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The three men were now totally absorbed in this at-once alien yet familiar land and
seascape, frequently pointing out particular features and landforms of especial interest.
For this world was quite the ppsI! of that outside the thick shell. There was at least
four times as much land area as there was sea! Drew pointed this out to his companions,
and once they too, realized what he was driving at, they began to do some rough calcula-
tions in their heads which gave the astonishing result that there was at least twice if not
three times as much land on the inner worlds surface as on its larger, outer counterpart!
And this was spI! the fact that its total spherical size was a! Ias! 1600 miles Iss in
diameter!
Sadly, they were unable to make any accurate comparisons in terms of atmospheric
density and weights of ob]ects in comparison to the external world since they had been
sub]ected to so many variations of both since descending the original shaft inside Undara.
And in any event, they had no instruments to measure such data. This was really a gross
mistake on the part of the professor. He had be so certain that no inner earth existed at
all, that hed seen little point in bringing such instruments with him. They would have
been ]ust so much additional and clumsy impedimenta on what had promised to be simply
an amusing and entertaining diversion.
!n fact he hadnt actually anticipated going below ground any further than perhaps
a few tourist caves around Australia, such as those in South Australia and the Nullarbor
Plain, the Jenolan Caves in NSW, the Undara Lava Tubes, and perhaps a few other less-
famous systems in North Queensland and the Top End of the Northern Territory and
Western Australia. The rest of his Australian adventure he had hoped to spend relaxing
under tropical palms on the white sands of the Barrier Reef coast, soaking up the dazzling
Queensland sunlight, and admiring the pounding white surf of the deep blue Pacific Ocean!
!nstead, much to his undying astonishment and delight, here he was, after many
unbelievably hair-raising adventures, dangers and terrors, zooming almost silently in a
robotic flying machine, straight out of some wild science-fiction novel, across the surface
of a totally-unexpected central HIIw aI!n looking out upon unimaginable geographical
and scenic wonders! The professor could hardly believe his tremendous good fortune,
despite how it would impact up all his past teachings!
The scenery was in truth, quite magnificent. And their appreciation of this was
greatly enhanced by the fact that their ship - which resembled a beautifully designed and
crafted flying-saucer" of some thirty feet diameter - seemed to respond uncannily to their
interest in specific views or ob]ects. For example. They passed over a particularly impres-
sive red-sandstone gorge, down which two mighty waterfalls cascaded in a ma]estic dis-
play of power and beauty to form a deep river a thousand feet below. The ship seemed
somehow to sense their admiration, and slowed almost to a hovering crawl so that they
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could fully savour the wonderful sight. This same curious phenomenon occurred several
times during their ]ourney.
Another time, as it crossed a largish lake or a small sea, the craft dropped almost to
wavetop-level so they could observe, at close range, a school of extremely dolphin-like
mammals as they disported themselves in the crystal-clear water. !t maintained pace with
the school, until the mens interest became diverted elsewhere. Thus their progression,
rather than being a direct flight at high speed between two points, became something of
a tourist sight-seeing event.
And all the time they were able, as they felt so inclined, to lean back and survey that
marvelous topographical map six and a half thousand miles above their heads, of the
other hemisphere of this beautiful world. True, parts of the maplike contours were oblit-
erated here and there by minute puffballs of white cloud, but there were also clouds
closer to hand above their own locale which frequently masked the mildly-glowing central
sun.
However, the overall effect of this rather faintly-etched and distance-misted, but
wonderful concave panorama of the inner-earth surface was one that they would remem-
ber till their dying days. How they wished they might traverse every square mile of this
amazing worlds surface! But even if this was not possible, at least they could see it all at
a distance. One need only to visit three of four points upon the hollow earths surface to
view vI) s!I of it! At least, they could hope for !na!!
This was totally impossible on their own, outer surface - unless one were fortunate
enough to be an astronaut! At their present average elevation of a hundred feet or so
above the surface, they would have only been able to see for thirteen or fourteen miles in
any direction before the circle of the horizon cut them off from viewing further, if the haze
of distance didnt limit this to even less!
The professor was especially interested in the fact that they could see the other side
of the concave world at all. !n his view, the density of the air above their heads, over a
distance of six thousand miles or more, should have rendered this quite impossible, as it
should have completely obscured their vision!
Errol mentioned that one could see craters on the Noon at some quarter of a million
miles distance on the outer surface, but the professor snorted his derision of this compari-
son. He said that it was a different matter altogether, since one was then looking up
through an external atmosphere that was only around twelve to twenty miles thick for all
practical purposes. The stratosphere beyond that was too thin to matter in terms of
obscuring vision, he argued. Yet here, they were looking up through a contained spheri-
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cal ball of air, that equaled an atmospheric layer over six !nusan miles thick!
Drew said nothing at first, but his brain had gone into overdrive. After a moment or
two of thought however, he pointed out that it was always possible that the atmospheric
layer above the inner surface might only be relatively shallow and that most of the central
region of the hollow sphere which contained the inner sun might simply be a great region
of total vacuum! !f this were so, and the internal atmosphere were say only half a dozen
or ten miles thick before it began to taper off into a vacuum, then they would only be
looking through double !na! !nIKnss at the distant topography high above! !n short,
they would be in much the same situation as on the outer surface. The only difference
being - as !n) uI s /I !nmsIvs - that the distant surface was aIs obscured -
unIIK !na! / !n Mn - by a closely-hugging layer of reasonably dense atmosphere.
Hence its faintly hazy appearance!
This brought a rousing cheer from Errol, and surprisingly, a rather forced smile from
Chas, who remarked that hed been wondering how long it would take them both to work
that one out! However, the professor wasnt fooling his two ex-students for a moment.
They knew him of old, and were well acquainted with his penchant for covering his own
mistakes in this cunning manner!
!t was at this stage, that they noticed that they were beginning to see artificial
structures here and there among the pinnacles of relatively unweathered stone, Errol had
for some time been looking out for signs of habitation, such as villages and towns -
although the very nature of the craft they were riding in, had already made them aware
that a hi-tech race, or races, of beings lived smwnI inside this hollow world. They
had speculated on this earlier after the voice had told them about being taken to a central
city. Did they natives live only in cities or did they also live in outlying towns and remote
hamlets, too? Perhaps with the occasional isolated mansion or castle here and there?
Now they were indeed beginning to see isolated palaces and cathedral-like edifices
among the high peaks and pinnacles of stone. How many of these they had already
missed they didnt know , since all the buildings, although architectural gems of exquisite
beauty and craftsmanship, had obviously been designed to DIn In! the overall natural
scenery, so that, quite unlike a good many of their outer-surface counterparts, they were
noI highly-visible and ugly blots on the landscape!
Drew wished they had brought a camera along on the expedition, as there were so
many things they could have recorded for posterity - as well as for evidence of their having
actually been through the many grueling experiences theyd had to endure during their
long and often extremely arduous ]ourney through the Earths crust. He had barely
thought of this before the mental voice they had heard earlier told him that a visual
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record na been kept of all their adventures, beginning with their descent of the first shaft
of the Undara volcano, and that a copy of it would be made available to them at a later
time during their so]ourn within the !nner Earth.
Seizing the opportunity whilst it was available, Drew asked the voice by what the
name this !nner Earth was called? The voice replied that it had been given many names
by people from the outer surface. Some had called it PaIaIs, and n, others had
named it AgnaI!a, yet others had named it 5namDaIIan, and even 5nangII-La. various
other names had been given to it down the ages, by sages from differing nations and
civilizations. To the Greeks it was OI)mpus, or the I)sIan FIIs, whilst to the Hindus it
was MIu, and to the ancient Egyptians it had been Amn!I and the Dua!. The Scandina-
vians had called it AsaI or UI!Ima TnuI. The Persians spoke of it as AI)ana, whilst the
Tibetans called it Iam/ and 5nangII La, The Nexicans and Aztecs had called it TuIa and
Ma)a Pan, whilst to the Celts it had been Danaa. !t had been the VaInaIIa of the Teutons,
and the AvaIn of the Anglo-Saxons.
However, many of these were wrong, whilst others referred to totally separate,
hidden cities concealed within the Earths crust. Perhaps AgnaI!a was the closest, and yet
even this only referred to one single region of the !nner Earth. Drew tried to coax the
voice into giving him the real and true name collective name for the !nner Earth, but the
voice refused to be drawn. This might be imparted only by the Council collectively, it said,
but only if they deemed it fitting to divulge it. Beyond that, the voice refused to discuss
the name any further. So Drew reluctantly had to back off. Besides, all the mental strain
was starting to make his head ache!
Evidently the voice was able to single out one mind at a time if necessary, as Errol,
who had noted Drews facial expressions during this silent exchange asked him if he was
OK? Hed notice that Drew had deeply introspective and making faces like a gargoyle
whilst engaged in the telepathic conversation, and had thought he must be struggling
with an overfull bladder - or worse!
However, a quick cry from Chas, brought their attention back to the passing scene,
for their craft had now dropped to a mere fifty or sixty feet from the ground in order for
them to see a typical !nner Earth village or hamlet. !t slowed to a walking pace as they
cruised above a central plaza lined with tidy villas, each set upon its own plot of land.
There were no fences or walls dividing the properties, each of which was ablaze with
beautiful flowering shrubs and hanging baskets overflowing with festoons of flowering
plants. Nost of the villas were like circular single-storied mansions complete with court-
yards, ornate fountains, pergolas and pools filled with brilliantly-colored fishes. Nany of
the residents were taking their ease in these idyllic surroundings upon colonnaded patios,
and waved up at the ship as it cruised slowly by.
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Their children stood and waved enthusiastically from the steps and doorways, and
some even ran alongside the ship laughing and shouting to its occupants -whom they
could obviously clearly see waving back! The three also noticed that the people also had
animal pets, though these were not restrained with collars and chains. Nost of these were
either small gazelle-like deer without horns, and there were some small apelike creatures
sitting upon some of the childrens shoulders, too. But there were no carnivorous animal
pets, such as dogs or cats, in evidence anywhere.
From what the three could see - as well as Narianne and Hazel, too - the people
were all very tall and robust folk - quite a lot taller that Drew and Errol, who both topped
six foot six inches - and were almost exclusively blond and blue-eyed. !t was as if they
had chanced upon a settlement of perfect Scandinavian giants! The women must have
averaged around seven and a half feet tall, whilst the menfolk were a good eight to ten
feet in height! Drew and Errol, for once in their young lives felt puny! Even the older
children were as tall as themselves!
They mentally compared these people, particularly the men, with those somber
entities who had been their astral guardians during the earlier part of their ]ourney, and
saw that there was a very close likeness indeed. Except that these were real flesh-and-
blood people with healthy tans who showed rosy blooms in their cheeks and lips. Their
guardians had been but pallid, ethereal ghosts by comparison. However, the kinship was
unmistakable. They wondered if all the !nner Earth people would be of the same racial
type.
!t was at this stage, that Hazel felt the irresistible tugging of her body, so she very
reluctantly had to take her leave of Narianne and her beloved Errol. GD) /I nw m)
sw!1 1 wIII I!uIn sn1 1 Iv )u, III1 She said to him in her mind, as she prepared
to leave. Nuch to her own and Nariannes great astonishment, she saw the expression on
Errols face suddenly undergo a marvelous change. He looked like one who has ]ust
received a great revelation from The Almighty Himself. His eyes closed and his face lit up
with a cherubic smile. !t was obvious to both the disembodied girls that Errol had actually
naI Hazels fond mentally-pro]ected words of farewell.
Suddenly, his mental voice boomed forth as if from a telepathic public-address sys-
tem. 1 Iv )u, !, HazI, m) aIIIng, wnIvI )u aI1 PIas nuII) DaK1 Even
their craft veered slightly off course for a split-second, and Drew turned suddenly towards
him with a big grin across his face.
H)1 WIm ! !n CIuD, I Du)1 he thought with all the mental power he
could muster..
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Errols face again lit up and his eyes flew wide-open. Hey, )uIsI/, Drew!" he said,
this time out loud, in his own normal cheery voice. ! naI that! How long have you
been listening in to my thoughts, )u Ia!!"
Drew grinned back at him. Oh, lets ]ust say `/I Ing nugn, old son! Anyhow, it
looks like wI aII on the same wavelength now, doesnt it!"
They both then became aware that the professor was staring at them both as if
theyd suddenly gone mad. Drew hastened to allay his fears.
!ts OK, Chas!" he said ]ovially. Errol and ! are practicing for an ESP act were
planning to develop, in case we ever have to turn to the stage for our living!"
Aye, weel, ]oost so!" said he, Ah always thocht ye twa would probably end up
traidin the boords, for a livin! Ye always were a fine pair o comedians as students o
geophesics! Ye grond pair o loons, ye!
A third voice now suddenly ]oined in the conversation, but unfortunately one that
Chas couldnt hear. !t was Narianne, speaking into both Drew and Errols minds.
Great going, Errol! Hazels over the moon! As Drew says, we really are all on the
same wavelength at last! Now well be able to keep in touch at all times, and Hazel and !
can help you out if you need it! Hazels ]ust gone back home to Glengarry. Her body
wants to be up and aboot, and it cant wake up withoot a spirit!"
!t probably wants to go to the bathroom!" quipped Errol in a roar of mind-noise,
ending with a great booming telepathic laugh.
The three of them split their mental sides at this witty thought.
Then their old voice returned, but this time telepathically, requesting them, in ef-
fect, to keep their mental conversation down to a uII roar, as the craft they were riding in
was operated by telepathic means and their alien communications were disturbing its
control-system. But please feel free to communicate in a verbal way, if you prefer." it
said. But we of the inner earth are far more at ease with mn!a!In as a means of
conversation. !t is much better for the environment to avoid all undue noise. Your own
world is like a hell to us, since modern humans seem to delight in polluting the ether as
much with their dreadful noise, as they do in polluting their environment with filth and
poisons. You will find nothing but peace, happiness and cleanliness in this world, for all
who dwell here have agreed that it should be so."
Then the voice added. This older one among you seems not to react well to telepa-
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thy. !f you and he wish, when we arrive at our destination - which will be quite soon now
- ! can arrange for his mind to be ad]usted to do so. ! have read his mind and it seems
that he has been raised in an environment where the spiritual and psychic are frowned
upon. Perhaps you will mention this to him verbally, and, if he agrees, ! can arrange for
his mental attunement before you meet the Council. ! will monitor his thoughts on this."
Drew glanced at Errol and saw at once that he had also heard the voice speaking
mentally.
What do )u reckon of their chances with Chas, mate?" he asked him, telepathi-
cally. ! personally reckon theyll be pushing Ayers Rock uphill trying to get the dear old
bloke to use telepathy. He thinks its all witchcraft and bogeyman stuff!"
Errol came back after a second or two, a little hesitantly, but not half so noisily, using
the same medium. The Prof has been known to surprise us before, Drew! Lets ]ust wait
and see what he says. !f we tell him the whole meeting will be in mind-language, he
wont want to miss anything of whats being said! Just you mark my wor. er - sorry - my
THOUGHTS!"
Drew saw the good sense and logic in this approach, and Errol ]oined him in explain-
ing to Chas the need for him to allow himself to be mentally attuned" in order to hear"
and understand the mental telepathic mode of conversation that they would have to use
in speaking with the Council when they arrived at the city. !t would apparently only take
a few brief moments for the change to be made and Chas would have a fine new gift for
the rest of his days. Why!" put in Errol cunningly, youll even be able to read your
students minds as you teach them! What a boon thatd be!"
Chas who had recollections of political brainwashing of people during the Cold War
era of the 1970s, was very leery of the whole idea. However, the thought of being able to
read his students minds appealed to him immensely! !n the end he capitulated, and
acting under the voices careful instructions, Drew was able to send him off into a light
hypnotic trance. This was all that was necessary for the voice to get inside Chass closely-
guarded mind, and carry out the requisite mental transfer of data into the Professors
subconscious. !n fact it was almost as simple as transferring a zipped email-attachment
from one computer to another. This curious task was accomplished within a few minutes,
and then Drew was instructed by the voice how to arouse Chas from his trance like state,
stating that the very act of awakening would cause the implanted mental data-program to
unzip and become instantly operative.
!t worked like a magic charm! As Chas regained his conscious awareness, his men-
tal voice nearly mentally deafened all of his listeners, including Narianne, who had been
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an interested if invisible bystander throughout all this.
WHARE THE HETII Am AH?." he boomed.
Please try to think quietly - and gently!" said the voice softly inside Chass head,
causing him to realize that he now possessed the same ability as his friends.
You mean IIK !nIs.?" he asked mentally, and without a trace of his usually thick
Scottish accent.
The voice applauded him, for the speed of his understanding. Now you can con-
verse mentally with your friends - even those whom you cannot perceive with your eyes!
Speak to him, Narianne!" it said - much to Nariannes astonishment.
However, she did as the voice requested. HI, PI/ssI1 MaIIann nI1 1m a!uaII)
IIgn! DsI )u In !n spIII!, s nw )u Knw I!s aII !Iu1 G DIss )u1
The professor was both amazed and delighted at his new skill. And even more so
when both Errol and Drew pulled his leg mentally, kidding him about hearing voices being
a sign of lunacy. Ah, weel!" he replied adopting his normal verbal dialect. Were a bluidy
mad, taigether, then, laddies - Och, aye - an LAD!ES, tae!"
After a while the novelty wore off and Drew and Errol resumed their former conver-
sation with Narianne, asking her how much sleep Hazel might need before she could
re]oin them. Narianne didnt really know. !t all depended upon what things Joan and
Bob were likely to ask her help with, as to how long shed be away. !t was as they were
thus deeply engaged that Drew chanced suddenly to notice that the professor was excit-
edly pointing up ahead, in the direction of their travel.
Hae ye goan blind as weel as deaf, laddies? Can ye no see whaire were comintae!
he waved his arm toward the front of the transparent wall- window. Yons what Ah call
a bluidy grond city!"
They all stared ahead at a grand vista of beautiful cathedral-like spires and pinnacles
shining like gold a few miles further on. !t was really magnificent and although it was
clearly a city of very tall edifices something akin the skyscrapers of their own Western
world, it also had a great deal of the far Eastern temples about it, too, which created a
perfect blend with its sharply-pinnacled surroundings.
They also noticed that it had gracefully curving walkways running at various levels
between and among the structures, and there were many aerial craft such as their own to
be seen in the vicinity. However, as they approached the great metropolis ever closer,
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their own craft rose suddenly higher and they were thus afforded a wonderful birds-eye
view of the great city.
Ny blooming Word! gasped Drew. !t leaves poor old Sydney for blooming dead!"
Not to mention New York!" added Errol excitedly. !ts like the Emerald City out of
Wizard of Oz, only its gold, and several thousand times better!"
But probably the most astonishing buildings they saw in and around the city were
the scores of vertically-elongated, and sharply-pointed pyramids which surrounded it on
its four sides like a hedging wall. These were finished in a polished white stone sur-
mounted by golden capstones.
The whole effect was totally spellbinding, and the !!aI aDsn of any traffic-
crowded streets running through it, set the final seal upon it. !nstead the lovely buildings
all seemed to have spIung up naturally out of beautiful parks and gardens, each of them
filled with an amazingly colorful riot of brilliantly-colored flowers and very tall, poplar-like
trees. Smoothly-paved walkways followed winding courses between these, interconnect-
ing all the buildings.
!t was indeed an astonishing and wonderfully ma]estic sight. And one which prom-
ised the three enthralled travelers unimaginable wonders and glories ahead which were
yet waiting to be revealed to them!
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PART !!!
SPNCTPM
SPNCTPBPM
Questo sicuro e gaudioso regno, frequente in gente antica."
This safe and ]oyful realm, full of an ancient race."
Dante Alighieri, Paradisio, 31
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As they approached rapidly closer for a landing in the tallest of the cylindrical build-
ings in the city, they saw that the saucer-like craft were able to land upon platforms that
slid out of curved slot-like recesses - rather similar to the CD drawer of a computer - set
into the sides of the structures at different levels. Obviously, there was no place for the
common automobile in this city! As they hovered alongside the central building a large
landing-platform slid forth out of the wall about three-quarters the way up its side and the
craft alight feather-softly upon it. Then the drawer slid gently back inside and they found
themselves in a brightly-lit, tiled foyer.
The three men were so staggered by the whole simple and graceful procedure that
they sat there in open-mouthed awe, until finally the voice had to ask them quietly and
verbally if they would now please leave their craft. The top of the craft rotated until a
vertical aperture was revealed through which they could pass. They then walked down a
mobile ramp and followed a lighted footway leading off the landing pad. At the end of the
foyer-hangar four giant men waited to meet them in order to conduct them to their
meeting with the Council of Elders.
Soon they were passing through the doorway of a large antechamber. Here another
giant eight-foot tall man with a neat silver beard awaited them. He greeted them affably
and dismissed their escort. He led them over to a corner of his office" - even though it
was more of a salon - where seats were arranged in a casual grouping around a circular
table. Here he bade them be seated for a short while until the Council were ready to
receive them. He told them that his name was Avistar and that he was the Chief Secretary
of the Council.
He offered them drinks of an excellent, refreshing beverage that was something
midway between a wine and a fruit-]uice. And, as they sipped their drinks appreciatively,
he told them in excellent English, that he had been appointed their official mentor and
guide during their stay in the city. He was also to be their representative at the coming
meeting with the Council, which he assured them, was n! in any way a court of law so
they could relax their minds regarding their immediate future! His role during the meet-
ing was merely to clarify any uncertainties or obscure points which might arise in the
exchange. He assured them that they were not under any form of arrest or detention,
nor were they about to be charged with any infringements of the laws of the region into
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which they had emerged.
He then went on to say that he himself had once lived a span on the outer surface as
an ordinary human being, as had a great many of his fellows. They lived long lives inside
the !nner Earth, and he was now approaching his ninth century. However, by general age-
standards, he was still a comparatively youngish man, since some of the Elders were now
well into their second millennia, and it was not unknown for them to continue on into a
third!
Needless to say, this amazing revelation came as astounding news to the three
adventurers, the eldest of whom was only ]ust entering his fifth a! Avistar could not
go into the whys and wherefores at this point regarding the source of this near-immortal-
ity. But he would explain more once the Council, which was now in session, had decided
their status, and whether they should be allowed to remain for a while.
!f the outcome of this meeting were favorable, then they would be invited to meet
the Council and would learn much and, later be permitted to see and observe many
things. !f it was not, then the worst that would happen was that they would be returned
without further ado in complete safety to the outer surface. Until that was decided, he
could not divulge anything further. However, even in the worst-case scenario, they had
already seen and learned something of this realm and that it I, in fact, !IuI) exist - so
their ]ourney would still not have been wasted! !t was now in the hands of the Council
as to whether they would be permitted to stay and learn a great deal more, if not all,
about the !nner Realms.
A quiet tinkling sound disturbed his chat and he excused himself for a moment
whilst he left them and went out through a large ornate double door into an ad]oining
room.
Nust have got a phone-call or something!" quipped Drew. But he seems a decent
sort of bloke, and at least hes giving us the straight drum on the situation."
We can only live in hope!" said Errol wistfully. Dunno about you guys, but ! love
this place already! !ts certainly beautiful and peaceful, and !d be quite happy to stay -
always providing theyd let Hazel ]oin me here, of course!"
Ah must admeet," opined the professor, Ah wouldnae say `N mahsailf, ef they
were tae offer us cetizensheep! Juist thenk o the sheer knowledge that a man could
acquire ower a thoosand years or so! Why its."
But his further comments remained unspoken, for their host had returned to tell
them, with a bright smile, that the Council of Elders had arrived at a decision and was now
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ready to receive them. He led them across to the great door he had opened and ushered
them into a vast and sumptuously-appointed chamber. Along the centre of the huge room
a long table of some unidentifiable material extended, surrounded by some twenty or so
comfortably padded and ornately decorated chairs.
At the side of each chair a very tall, loosely robed, almost classically Grecian-looking
figure stood looking in their direction with great interest. Some of these quite statuesque
personages were females, which fact Drew interpreted as being a good sign of a well-
balanced and non-chauvinistic society. Nost of them were of a Nordic appearance, with
blond or silver hair and blue eyes, although there was also a sprinkling of brunette and
redheaded people among them.
As the trio entered the chamber led by Avistar, who murmured to them, s!!-v,
to bow to the Council - which they did - the council members themselves bowed in return.
Then one of their number, a truly patriarchal, silver-bearded figure, which stood at the
head of the table, bade Avistar to bring them forward.
They were then led to a small semicircle of five comfortable seats set out at the
nearer end of table. Then, as the obviously highly-venerated patriarch at its farther end
lowered himself down into his own great throne-like chair, so too did all the rest of the
Council. Only when they were all seated did Avistar indicate to the trio that they might
now do likewise. As the three men sat down, they wondered for whom the other chairs
were reserved. But they were not kept wondering for long.
Once everyone was comfortably settled down, the leader or chairman of the meet-
ing began to address the four newcomers - for he was well aware of Nariannes spiritual
presence among the visitors - by using direct mind-to-mind communication.
He prefaced his address by asking, first of all, if Narianne would prefer to be ren-
dered visible as a fleshly entity. For it was well within the power of all those present to
manifest themselves - and any others - thus at any distance, in a completely solid and
sensibly tangible form. At once the three adventurers mentally urged her to do so, as
they looked keenly forward to having her physically present among them - especially
Drew.
She at once accepted the offer and the great Elder paused for a moment to focus his
extrasensory powers upon her unseen spirit, his head bowed, his eyes closed, and a look
of deep mental concentration upon his strong features. The three men suddenly saw a
faint flickering form begin to materialize in one of the empty chairs, and within a matter of
seconds, Nariannes solid figure had completely formed, in full living and breathing beauty,
beside Drew. They looked at each other in wonderment and love, then all eyes turned
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back to the leader of the Council who was now smiling at Narianne.
Welcome into our midst, Narianne!" he smiled in a benevolent way. ! trust that the
experience of plastic manifestation was not unpleasant in any way?"
Not at all, sir!" she replied happily. !t was rather pleasant, and allow me to thank
you for this wonderful experience!"
Not at all, my dear. Think nothing of it!" said the elder. ! trust that we may also be
able to do the same for your companion - HazI? Ah! Yes!" he said brightly after reading
Nariannes thoughts. ! see ! am right! - When she returns in the spirit, also! ! take it that
she will be returning in the next Exo-Earth hour or so? !f not, we can always arrange for
her spirit to be conducted here. We here in Avallah have developed many skills of mind-
power that you Outer-Dwellers have not yet even begun to contemplate - even though
they are latent within you all! You have far too many other mental and material distrac-
tions to be able to focus your minds properly."
Again he smiled benignly, this time at the four of them.
Firstly, let me say that we of the Council are pleased to finally meet you all in the
corporeal state. We have been following your struggles and travails with the greatest of
interest, and are greatly pleased that you have shown the spiritual strength and moral
courage to complete the ]ourney. Despite the many tests and trials you have had to face
along the way!"
Here the Elder regarded them with a rather rueful smile. Some of these trials, !
must here confess, were of our own creation - the meeting with Satan for example - but
! can now assure you and set your minds at rest, that you have collectively and individually
passed them all! Were it otherwise, you would not be sitting here now!
Secondly, let me allay any wonder you may have regarding our apparent under-
standing of your native tongue. !t has nothing to do with a knowledge of national lan-
guages upon the outer world. We simply comprehend your own !nugn!s and converse
with you on that level, thus )u yourselves understand and interpret uI thoughts by the
same process, and so it sms to you that we speak in your verbal tongue. This is why we
prefer to converse with you in this none-verbal manner."
Again, he treated them to a benign and comforting smile.
Now! Having disposed of those two important points, we will begin this meeting by
welcoming you all to this !nner World of Edena, which is the original womb of all life, both
within and without the planetary shell. Yes! ! can see that most of you have aIIa)
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considered this as being likely, so it is a pleasure for me to be able to n/IIm your beliefs!"
He turned his gaze upon the professor. !t is a pity that you, Charles, being a sage and a
mentor to so many young and impressionable minds, have not been aware of this yourself
until now. Or you might have helped the spIII!uaI development of your students consider-
ably had you but known. However, you are not to blame, since you, along with many
thousands of others, have simply passed on the erroneous concepts of many so-called
IaIn mn / sIn without questioning or doubting their theories and inventions.
Let me give you a few words of wisdom, Charles, and then a question to ponder
upon. 5In in your ancient earthly tongue means KnwIg, and KnwIg
means an unIs!anIng / /a!uaI !Iu!n, wnIn nas Dn aquII !nIugn pIsnaI
xpIIn1 Everything else is pure hypothesis and theory, and even then, it is often only
the second-hand product of anothers speculation and imagination! The question you
have to ask yourself is this. How much Fa!uaI TIu!n have you instilled into those hundreds
of young minds that you have controlled during your period of tutelage?
No! You need not answer me!" said the Elder as Chas grew red in the face and
grappled feverishly within his own mind to find a suitable response. The question is
intended purely as a rhetorical one. You may perhaps wish to reconsider your future
career once you finally discover the answer! Fortunately, n! aII your students were mere
mental sponges, absorbing everything you taught without question! Two of these inde-
pendently-minded spirits are sitting beside you now, and it is they whom you should thank
for finally being shown the TIu!n!"
Now," said he, Before going on any further, let me introduce myself and the Coun-
cilors present. ! am called Aaos, and ! am the Cn1e1 EIder of the Council. These others,
whom ! will not take the time here to name - since you will only forget their names
anyhow," (nI vI)n gIInn wII)} are all chosen Councilors of AVaIIan, our state.
Avallah is one of seven regions or states of the !nner World, and this city, which is the
central hub of our particular region, is called VaII1ssum.
!n due course, you will be permitted to travel freely and at will throughout all of the
seven regions. Each of these is self-governed, and is guided entirely without duress by
sages such as myself and these others here with me. We are appointed solely by popular
choice of the inhabitants of each district to be their representatives in all matters. We
have no political systems here, since each of us is chosen directly for our wisdom and
experience of life and our dedication to the welfare of our own local area, its people, and
their best interests. ! am merely here as the Councils Chief Elder in order to see that the
all decisions they reach and actions they take are fair and ]ust. Nor am ! personally biased
toward, or related to any one of them.
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Since we have no crime in this world, we require no civil laws and penalties for
breaking them, and thus no need for police to enforce them. !n addition, since we live in
complete harmony with all our neighbouring states, we have no wars and therefore re-
quire no armies either. Sometimes personal disputes might arise between neighbours,
but these are usually solved by sensible agreement, since everyone knows what his or her
neighbour is thinking. !f they are not solved in this way, then they are brought before the
council for an ad]udication, which is always adhered to.
Our system of administration is very liberal and free, in comparison with your exo-
surface-world governments, which are all oppressive and expensive. Where your leaders
and politicians at several levels require huge salaries, we require nn! We are here in
this Council for purely altruistic reasons, not for any personal gain. !t is reward enough
that our people honoured us so greatly as to request us to represent them! Thus, we all
strive to repay that sacred trust of honour! Every home in this world is entirely self-
sustained, so money is of no use to us. !f we wish to exchange or share something of our
own agricultural produce or skilled manufacture, we do so by either barter or gift, as
seems best fitting. !n public works, such as the building of this city, for example, only
those who wIsn ! nIp do so, and it is regarded as a matter of great civic pride that one
helped in such a marvelous task. The same is true of neighbours helping one build ones
own home. All skilled artisans and engineers donate their services freely and willingly for
a multitude of purposes, whether private or public. Our entire society is based upon
mutual help, love, respect and trust. Thus, because we have free access to whatever we
require, we have no theft or crime. And because of this, we have no need for money and
government, taxation or tithes, nor of state laws, or penalties, such as state incarceration
or retribution!"
Here Drew put up his hand, and the Elder stopped his mental speech and nodded to
him. You have a question, Drew?" he asked.
Yes, ! do, sir," said Drew, What happens when someone does an evil or wicked
thing ]ust because they /I like doing it, or because they n)) doing bad things? Surely,
you must have sm wa) of punishing them, or locking them away from the rest of the
population? Everyone cant be pI/! all the time, can they?"
Naxos stared at Drew closely before replying. Then after a moment of concealed,
private thought, he answered him.
You are quite correct, Drew. Even here in the !nner World, we encounter such
problems from time to time. However, since there is no x!InaI m!Iva!In for anyone to
do something evil - such as murder or robbery - it can only be due to some mental or
spiritual disorder. !n such an event the matter becomes a mIaI one - insofar as we
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have any need of medicine - and the malefactor then becomes a pa!In! who requires
institutional treatment. We have a special nspI!aI for such cases, where the sIK
person can be given spiritual or mental help. This falls within the scope of those who are
either naturally gifted, or have been thoroughly trained, in cleansing minds or spirits. The
treatment is swift and permanent in most such cases. However, if the mind or spirit
I/uss to cooperate, then stronger measures have to be taken. The person may have to
be deprived of his or her mental or spiritual will for a period of time - or in very rare cases
- permanently. Naturally this is regrettable and not something we resort to lightly, but
sometimes, it is the only solution."
What are the IsuI!s of such treatment, Naxos?" asked Drew, in as coolly clinical a
manner of thought as he could muster, knowing his thoughts could be read.
Again Naxos thought deeply and stared penetratingly at Drew - who strove manfully
to exude a carefree and bland pattern of thought during this inspection.
The usual result of this kind of treatment" said Naxos, is a loss of interactive
mentation with others, and sometimes a state of complete amnesia. The patient simply
ceases to !nInK on a conscious level. Of course, this in no way impairs his autonomic brain
and nervous operations. He still continues to breathe, eat, sleep, and general operate as
an animal organism. He is merely render incapable of thinking any original thoughts or of
initiating any actions other that those dictated by his bodily functions and needs, or such
as may be commanded by his nurses."
!n other words" replied Drew, you simply turn them into zmDIs! We do that to
mental patients up in the outer world, too! Quite often, criminally insane mental patients
have a portion of their forebrain either surgically removed or permanently rendered inop-
erative by drugs! Either way, in my view, such treatment is still punIsnmn! I I!IIDu!In
inflicted by society upon its aberrant members!"
Naxos smiled evenly at Drew. No, my hot-headed young friend, it is merely a
necessary treatment. We do not put aberrant members of uI society to death, as you do
in your world, we simply protect the ordinary people from them, and the sick from them-
selves! Now! Before ! go on, do you have any /uI!nI questions?"
Drew noticed that the Council members were also eyeing him uncertainly and he
felt Errols elbow dig sharply into his upper arm. He took the hint not to push his luck. He
thought hard. N1 TnanK )u1 He shook his head smiling disarmingly. .
Naxos smiled back, obviously relieved, and resumed his talk. As you are only too
well aware, we possess many technologies which are far in advance of those you have
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thus far developed on the Outer World. However, ours are primarily designed for the
purposes of enhancing our environment and for the advancement of our knowledge. !t
may surprise you to know that we have already been in communication with the inner
dwellers of other planets and moons of this star-system - and those of !nI star-systems
- for many centuries! For this purpose we long ago developed flying-craft - such as that
which brought you here, and it is the observational versions of these which have caused
so much consternation in your world.
Ah, yes!" he cried mentally, `FI)Ing-5auIs, as your people refer to them! Thank
you for that reminder, whoever you are! For the past several decades now we have had
to use them to monitor your world very closely. The development of destructive atomic-
power toward the close of that last great war fought upon your outer surface, alerted us to
the fact that any further development along those lines could, if allowed to continue
unchecked, lead to the destruction not only of your outer world, but of our own. We were
especially alarmed by the underground testing of these weapons and those on the sea-
bed. There was some danger of existing faults being exacerbated and opened up wider,
which could have spelled disaster for us.
However, we were able, by subtle means upon which ! will not elaborate, to per-
suade your greatest leaders to turn aside into other areas of less dangerous rivalry. The
space programs of both ma]or so-called superpowers" were originally initiated by our
covert intervention. However, unfortunately, this has now lead to an unexpected threat
to our friends who reside within the planet you call Nars". !t appears that your outer race
wishes to terraform that planet as a place of refuge for a colony of your self-serving
political, governmental and military people, in the event of the total ruination of your
biosphere and atmosphere finally bringing about the end of your outer world. We want
you to know that this has happened before, both on the exo-surface of this planet an
upon Nars! ! understand that your NASA scientists have already found clues to this on
Nars, and your various external religions already have records of the last such event on
the Earth.
This brings me very neatly to the matter of IIIgIn. Ah! But we see that your
minds are wearied and you need time to relax and absorb all this information. Let us
therefore ad]ourn now for a sustenance-break, and resume this meeting later!"
With that, he arose and bowed to his fellow councilors and their visitors alike, who,
in turn, stood up and bowed back to him. Then Naxos left the apartment by an unseen
exit, and his colleagues filed out through another doorway. Now Avistar returned and took
charge of the four guests. He conducted them out through his outer reception area, along
a softly-lit corridor and into an excellently-appointed private apartment. !t possessed an
enormously great, long window, from floor to ceiling, and thus afforded a marvelous wide-
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angle view all across the wonderful city skyline.
A large table set in the bay of this window was laid out with an amazing array of
weird and wonderful vegetables, fruits and sweetmeats. There were also eating-imple-
ments and utensils of various sorts, and raised-edged square platters of some plastic-like
substance, that presumably served as plates and dishes. !n addition, there were transpar-
ent carafes of differently colored liquids, similar to those fruit-drinks they had en]oyed
earlier. Errol tried mentally to ask Avistar what, among the array was edible for humans
from the Earths outer surface. The secretary was amused by Errols concern. Waving his
arms in an all-embracing gesture toward the food and drink, he laughed and mentally
booming: Everything is ediblel Eat and drink - and ENJOYl" However, Narianne,
being essentially incorporeal, could only watch.
Just as he was about to leave the room, Avistar turned and looked keenly at Drew.
Drew felt that he wished to speak to him alone. His thoughts penetrated only Drews
mind, as if he were carefully shielding them. Ny friend! You will perhaps be glad to know
that this apartment has been !nugn!-pI/! !t was designed thus to preserve the
privacy and confidentiality of envoys from our neighboring states. So you may speak
freely and verbally among yourselves here without fear of being monitored! You have my
word of honor on it! We have no Tnugn!-PII here as is believed to be the case in
parts of )uI world! Naxos spoke only the truth in this regard! ! cannot explain more
now, but please be on your guard regarding what you say to him! He is very sensitive
about certain matters that you have already raised!"
Then, promising he would be back in due course to return them to the Council
Chamber, he turned and left, leaving them to experiment with their curious feast.
He looked around for Errol, who had suddenly disappeared. Then, glancing into a
passageway leading to other rooms in the apartment, he encountered Errol ]ust emerging
from a doorway at its farther end. Thank God for !na!, buddy!" Errol cried. They have
Da!nIms here, too! !ve been near to bursting for the past hour while the old guy was
droning on, and was beginning to wonder if these guys had their bodily wastes surgically
removed or something crazy like that! Fortunately, they appear to have similar needs to
us - even if a tad on the nIgn side!" Then he noticed Drews rather somber mein. Hey!
Lighten up, Drew!" he laughed. Things are looking pretty rosy for us now, old buddy!"
But Drew quietly led him into one of the side-chambers, and repeated to Errol all that
Avistar had ]ust told him in private.
Hmmmm!" said Errol. ! guess well have to tiptoe through this particular tulip-
patch like a goddamn minefield, Drew! No more arguing with the Big Cheese, buddy, or
we might all wind up having prefrontal lobotomies - or whatever they do to their loonies!
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We better ]ust clam up and go along with whatever Naxos says! Nind you, Drew," he
added, he sure has our world politics figured out six ways to Sunday! And ! was rapt in
the FI)Ing 5auI angle! T fed !na! term to him, by the way!"
They ambled over and ]oined Chas, who was en]oying the adventure of tucking into
the mystery-feast, while Narianne stood by hungrily watching him smacking his lips over
some particularly appealing new taste-temptation.
Ye want tae get stuck entae thes food, lads! Ets nae bad at a, even though ets
mainly rabbit-fodder! These fellers most a be vegeetarians ]udgin by the lack o meat!
Hooever, Ah can sairtainly recommend the sweets and puddings! Theyre a grond eatin!"
Drew was surprised to see that Narianne was not eating. Whats this?" he asked.
Not hungry, love? Or do you think it might be poisonous? Avistar said."
Yeah, Drew." She replied glumly. Trouble is that this body" Naxos gave me is only
a sort of dummy-shell! ! dont have the necessary equipment to eat!"
Drew was a little put out by this. ! should have thought that with all the technology
and what-have-you these fellers have got, theyd have been able to fix you up with a fair-
dinkum body! Never mind, hon, at least you can always zip back to Glengarry and have a
proper feed cooked by Joan! Which is more than w can do!"
At Errols prompting, Drew tried some of the fruits and found them highly accept-
able, as were most of the salad-like vegetables. Others however, were clearly called for an
acquired taste. However, as Chas had said, the sweetmeats were excellent, especially one
particular fudge-looking substance that resembled chocolate, and tasted exactly the same!
All in all, they generally ate their fill and washed it down with some of the delightful drinks,
none of which were intoxicants, they were happy to note. !t would hardly be politic to
return to the Council Chamber half-seas over, with ones mind leaking ill-considered drunken
thoughts like a sieve!
They all now recognized the need to be very much on their mental guard when
faced with Naxos! Despite the old sages apparent tolerance and his gIassns! toward
them, there was something about him that went against the grain with Drew. Although
Errol and Chas had at first seemed to be quite impressed with him - until Drew had passed
on Avistars hint about the need to tread warily around him.
Drew had taken Avistars warning very much to heart, and wondered if any other
Council members might also have some sort of hidden agendas. However, they would ]ust
have to accept the situation for the time being and hope that things panned out for them
- and try to avoid any further clashes with the Chief Councilor.
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Shortly after they had finished eating and discussing these things, Avistar reap-
peared to advise them that the council was reassembling and would they kindly follow him
back to what Errol had now dubbed the Star Chamber". The councilors were all seated
this time as was Naxos, and without any of the former ceremony, he waved them toward
their seats.
After asking if they had en]oyed their repast, he immediately got down to brass
tacks, continuing his lengthy monologue where he had ended it.
! believe ! was about to explain our religious views in this fair world of Edena." he
said. Let me begin by saying that, although we all worship the same Creative Deity, each
of our seven states call Him by a different name. But to us, he is the Great Creator Spirit,
and we endeavour to address him by no other title. We understand from those among us
who have spent time in your world - not as spies, but as interested, unofficial visitors -
that the same is largely true of your outer world. That your Creator God goes under
various guises in several religions, and we also note with interest that He is credited with
having produced the first man or men out of the Earth itself. You have a legend in your
Holy Books that Nan was created first in the Garden of Eden. Therefore, it will come as no
surprise to you that this inner world is that same Edena which is spoken about in your
Talmud, Bible, and Koran.
We were all created here, but were cast out by the Creator after the Sin of Eve in
attending to the Serpents words and eating the forbidden fruit, caused Adam also to sin.
The Serpent was the reptilian Fallen Archangel, Lucifer, now called Satan. Are we agreed
thus far?" Here all present nodded their agreement, so Naxos continued. The Creator
then cast the man and the woman out of Eden into the Wilderness" and caused mighty
cherubs, bearing swords of fire, to guard the entrances to Eden so that Nan could not
return.
Now let us consider these entrances to Eden. To us they represent the portals into
our !nner Realm of Eden from which Adam was cast out. And, as you yourselves have
already learned, you have come through a portal that was once as a cherubim bearing a
flaming sword" - a great volcano, bearing a sword of /II! !t was only because this
entrance to Eden long since ceased to be guarded by the volcano-angel that you were
able to enter!
Our own race reentered Eden long aeons ago, before the Creator drowned all life
on the outer surface with a great flood! !n your own Holy Book, The Bible, does it not say
that before the Flood, Inere were G1anIs 1n Ine Iand - m1gnIy men o1 renown"?
And that they were called the 5ons o1 God who took the daughters of men to wed!
Are we not the descendants of these same giants? You have but to IooR upon us to see
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that we are g1anIs compared to you and - as was Aoan - fair of skin and bright of eye,
with fair hair! Thus our origin and our antiquity is confirmed by your outer world reli-
gions!"
Here Naxos relaxed and paused in his dramatic account for a moment to let this
amazing idea permeate into the minds of his four listeners. However, his eagle eye was
upon them, and his razor-sharp mind searched theirs for any signs of dissention or argu-
ment. Pleased to find that they appeared to have accepted his account of the origin of
humanity, Naxos continued.
But what of the OeV1I 5erpenI, the reptile who once was an Archangel, and all of
those who were outcast with him? As you came through the Shell of the Earth, you
encountered many of his minions. Those who have followed his lead and assumed the
same foul reptilian form, such as he wore when he so easily beguiled the Nother of
Nankind in this very place! However, he, too, was cast out of this place and commanded
to go upon his belly and eat the dust and dirt all of his days!
Yet he has reappeared many times to men as a god since then. He is still the dark,
vII god of your outer world! He was NaIa)ana, the seven-headed Naga Serpent of the
Nuvians and the Nacaals, he was App, the fiendish serpent god of the Egyptians, he was
u!zaIa!I, the Plumed Serpent of the Aztecs, he was the PaInDw 5Ipn! of the
Australian aborigines. He was also all the other winged Serpent, Wyrm and Dragon deities
of the outer Earths eastern nations and religions that have come and gone since then.
But wherever Satan now is, his reptilian coconspirators and servants are there, as you well
know, lurking still within the bowels of the Earths crust, like their master, seeking whom
they may devour!"
Again, Naxos paused for effect, and mentally surveyed his listeners. Still they seemed
to accept and hang upon his every word. Then he moved on to other things concerning
the dwellers within the thick crust of rock that separated the two worlds. He spoke now
of the habitations of hidden but greatly advanced races of men who inhabited vast cavern-
ous portions of the crust. They lived in magnificent well-ordered cities, beneath the Hima-
layas, the central Asian plateau, the Americas, and beneath the very floors of the world
ma]or oceans. He told them, too, that there were others, yet unknown to learned savants
of the outer world, who lived in gigantic subterranean communities beneath his own InnI
wIIs surface. Something Drew realized, that many !nner Earth theorists had never
even considered!
He told them of the lost, but now evil remnants of Atlantis, deep beneath the bed of
the Atlantic Ocean, and of the vast, sunken, but still thriving, subterranean continental
chain of Ra Nu in the central Pacific. He spoke of the drowned, but once mighty Lemuria,
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ancient heartland of the Naven empire, and its hidden connections with the tunnel-world
beneath the Peruvian Andes. He told them of Telos, beneath Nount Shasta, in California,
and of the deep reptilian bases beneath New Nexico and Nevada.
He spoke of other deeply hidden city-communities, such as the great Universal
Library of Records at Porthologos beneath the Aegean, and the vast mazes of deep tun-
nel-city systems under the Nediterranean seabed at Nalta and the Giza plateau of Egypt.
Of ancient Hyperborea, now buried and crushed beneath the mighty Greenland icecap in
the Arctic, and the newer secret bases hidden beneath the huge ice-capped continent of
Antarctica.
He then went on to tell them of their neighbouring !nner Earth state of Agartha, and
its great central city of Shamballah - whose lesser subterranean twin-city was still occu-
pied beneath the Himalayas - and of the other five !nner Earth states ad]oining both
Avallah and Agartha. Some of them were now sanctuaries for hominid beings rescued
from other dying star-systems.
He also told them of the enormous importance of I)s!aIs to their highly-advanced
technology, and how the surface races had so foolishly abandoned the potentially huge
power of crystals at the primitive cats-whisker" radio stage. !f they had developed
them, he said, they would by now have had complete control over their surface weather,
temperature, and even be shielded against incoming ob]ects from outer space! The
!nner Earth community had even offered freely to help certain ma]or nations to do this,
only to be ungraciously refused with the greatest of suspicion as to their hidden motiva-
tion. Yet, these same ingrate nations covertly cooperated technologically with the de-
tested reptilian race - at their unwittingly dire peril!
Drew and Errol could not help but listen to this amazing catalogue of intelligence in
open-mouthed awe. They both felt a new and healthy respect for this knowledgeable
and ancient sage, who had seemed so threatening to them a mere couple of hours ago.
How could he possible know all this? Unless his scout-ships and intelligence gathering
network up on the outer Earth was second to none!
They themselves had only ]ust begun to gain the first faint inkling of this political
intrigue and the existence of secret cities and bases on their own outer surface world,
thanks largely to their gleanings from the World wide Web of the !nternets myriad acting,
unpaid news-hounds!
The Chief Councilor had been communicating these things to them for some hours
now, and was beginning to tire of the concentrated effort to maintain clear contact with
the somewhat more rudimentary telepathic receptive powers of his listeners. !t was time
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they broke off for this session, he said, but if any of the four visitors had any questions.
Ao! He announced, suddenly interrupting himself. Nake that FTVE! For Hazel had
]ust arrived to ]oin them! There was a slight holdup whilst he posed the same question to
Hazel regarding her being given a visual and tangible outer snII during her visit with
them. Seeing that Narianne had done so, Hazel readily accepted this offer, and within a
matter of moments, she too became visible ]ust as her friend had done.
Errol was especially delighted to be able to at least see and actually take the hand of
his beloved again, and Drew and the professor were very effusive in their welcome toward
her in her new guise despite the fact that he knew that he was only seeing a temporary
molecularly-fabricated outer body. Like Narianne, Hazel looked radiantly splendid in this
form. The mysterious ectoplasm material their spirits were now clothed" in, allowed the
aura of the spirit to shine brightly forth, no longer being masked by a corporeal, fully
fleshed body. However, it was great to again be a solid-looking group of people, and they
felt far less outnumbered by the twenty-one councilors.
Drew, as spokesman for his group told Naxos that they had no immediate questions
- but would probably have some later. First, however, theyd need some time to confer
among themselves regarding the information he had ]ust so eloquently supplied to them.
At this Naxos declared the proceedings to be at an end and that they would be taken up
again in a few periods time. Whereupon the meeting disbanded following the same
ordered manner as on the last occasion. Drews interest was aroused by Naxos refer-
ence to a /w pIIs !Im, and on their way out, he asked Avistar what a period"
consisted of in a temporal sense. How, in the absence of any divisions of day and night
and of seasons, they were able to measure such periods or divisions of time? Did they
have timepieces similar to their own clocks and watches - or what?
Avistar smiled at him. Whilst, for obvious reasons, we do not have such divisions of
time as days and nights. We aI controlled, to a large degree, by Earths moon in a
regular Earthly time-periodicity. We feel its gravitational effects ]ust as much within the
!nner Earth as do you upon the outer surface. !t causes tidal fluctuations upon our seas
]ust as it does on yours. The thickness of the earths crust is no great barrier to such a
powerful external force. Thus we experience two tidal rises and ebbs every day" as occur
externally, even though perhaps not so strongly.
Thus, having two focal periods of time reference per external day", we are able to
divide each of these up into ten equal periods much like your hours". Thus, every twenty
such periods can be regarded as a day" - though we do not call them such. Since we also
know the period it takes the Earth to orbit around the Sun, we thus arrive at something
close to your own year of days", which are in turn grouped into periods of twenty, so that
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we have eighteen such twenty-day months" in each Earth orbit of the sun. Our hours are
divided up mechanically as yours are, except that we have twenty divisions of our hours"
instead of your sixty. Each of these in turns is divisible into twenty subdivisions. Thus, my
friend, our hours" equal roughly ten minutes" longer than yours do, and our minutes
roughly four of yours. The rest you can calculate for yourself, since ! am not a mathema-
tician!"
What do you call all these time-periods" of yours, then?" asked Drew.
Just that!" said Avistar. Time-Periods! The year" is simply an orbit", the month
is a Long Period", the day a Period", the hour a Part-Period". Ninutes are Divisions" and
seconds are Subdivisions" - what could be more simple than that? But let me add that we
seldom concern ourselves with the two latter brief time-spans. Our most useful time-
measures are simply stated in Orbits, Periods and Part-Periods". ! trust that you under-
stand this now, Drew?" he asked.
Oh! Perfectly!" Drew replied. So ! take that Naxos meant that we wont be meet-
ing the Council again for some days?"
Correct!" replied his host. !n the meantime, after you have all had a sleep-period,
! shall be taking you upon a conducted tour of our city and of our !nner World.
!n view of the growing interest by a growing number of your general external popu-
lation in our existence, we are all most anxious now to get them to understand that we
represent no threat to them, and are prepared to help them. That is, if they will permit us
- to halt the wanton destruction of their biological and atmospheric environment. !n
addition, we are anxious to get the message through to your politicians and military chiefs
that they are courting disaster if they continue to ally themselves with the reptilians and
their ilk. These creatures - who are actually pIm!Ing this vast destruction - seek to take
over the entire planet and to eradicate the human race completely! They aIms! did so
with the Nartians - and naVe n so with others of this system - by showing them how
to s!I) !nmsIvs!"
By this time, they had arrived back at their former, thought-proofed apartment,
where they were served with another sumptuous meal. Then Avistar left them to relax,
chat and sleep until the next period of activity.
Well!" said Drew, once they were all left alone. What did you reckon of all that,
folks! ! thought old Naxos was going to bore the socks off us, but instead ! found his
lecture highly interesting and enlightening!"
Errol agreed with him heartily. ! guess ! learned more about our own world from
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that guy in two or three hours than ! ever learned in my whole darned life before! The
guys a walking encyclopedia of ancient knowledge! ! daresay, even the Prof will admit
that, eh? What say, Chas, old buddy?"
Chas reluctantly admitted that he too had found Naxos lecture most intriguing.
Nind ye," he added, conseederin that yon fellers been aroond for hoondreds o years,
Ahm no surprised that hes lairnt a heill of a lot more that ony of us could ever hope tae!
Hooaiver, Ah dinna mind bowinmah heid before the mons grond stock oweesdom an
knowledge! Hed be a verra wailcome addition tae the auld Univairsity faculty, theres nae
doobtin that!"
That is," put in Narianne, rather sagely, always providing he isnt ]ust maKIng I! aII
up as he goes along! Lets face it. !f hes the oldest guy among them all - in his !nII
mIIInnIum from what ! can figure - they wouldnt know if he was ]ust spinning yarns or
stating facts that only n could possibly know for sure!"
Drew, however, was convinced that Naxos was fair dinkum about all hed told them.
Why wuI he want to II to us, honey? He doesnt really give a toss whether w believe
him or not! Besides, !ve already read some of the things he talked about, on the Net, so
how would he pick !na! up, down here? Whos his web-server? No! ! guess hes got my
vote in !na! regard!"
However, at that point, Narianne was beginning to get urgent signals from her body,
which was struggling to awaken from a marathon slumber. When you gotta go, you g!!a
g! she laughed. !ll try to get back as soon as ! can but ! guess my body needs some
exercise, as well as nourishment an various other pressing needs! ! ]ust hope everythings
going OK at Glengarry! What was happening when you left, Hazel?"
Oh, not a lot, love!" replied Hazel. !vrytheng seumed prutty roight, and Bob was
up and about agine - and as heppy as a box o birds now that Jemmys come beck sife end
sound!" Errol was rather surprised to note that Hazels rather strong Kiwi accent had
returned since her embodiment by Naxos. !t was evidently all part of the weird process.
Then it occurred to him what the disembodied voice had said in the saucer-ship to Hazel,
in response to her remarking that she wished she could sample some of the fine food
theyd found there as they were being conveyed to the city. !t had said: AII sun !nIngs
an D aIIang, I/ )u s sII1 He immediately went off out of the apartment in
search of Avistar to see if something could be done for both Hazel and Narianne in this
regard.
Avistar was mildly surprised to see him, but when he told him what hed come to see
him about, he smiled and said it was merely an oversight, and that hed contact Naxos
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immediately to rectify it. They would certainly be able to eat and en]oy the food ]ust like
the three men. However, they would derive no sustenance from it. nor did they actually
need any, being spirits.
!t would simply be an illusory effect, but one that could be sensed by the recipient
of the illusion. He assured Errol that it would be put right within moments, and true to his
promise, it was so. For when Errol got back to the apartment, he found both Hazel and
Narianne tucking into the food and drink with gusto, whilst Drew and Chas stood looking
on, completely mystified!
Hey!" Errol called to Narianne, ! thought you were in a big hurry to get back to
Glengarry, Narianne! Dont you fancy Joans cooking anymore?"
She grinned back at him happily. Well," she said, appreciatively, around a mouthful
of delicious the delicious chocolate-fudgy confection, Hazel ]ust suddenly decided she
was hungry and found that she could actually !as! and a! the food, so ! thought 1 give
it a try, too - and - B), n B)! !s I! ever IIIus!"
Errol was astounded at the rapid response his request to Avistar had produced.
Nustve struck old Naxos in a generous mood!" he thought to himself, ]oining the others
at their smorgasbord banquet.
Narianne, meantime carried on and ate what she felt to be her fill with obvious
relish. Soon after that, she bade an especially fond farewell to Drew and then to them all,
before fading rapidly from their vision to speed back to Glengarry and her beckoning body.
!t was only after Narianne had left, that Hazel realized the men would shortly be
retiring to sleep for the next seven or eight hours. She would be left alone to prowl
around the apartment, since spirits require no sleep. She might as well have gone home
with Narianne for a spell. Then she realized it would mean having to rouse her sleeping
body from its well-earned rest and mooch around the Jackson household instead.
Naybe she could go for a bit of a ramble around the vast city and see the sights?
She wouldnt be able to go with the guys tomorrow anyhow, as her own body would be
calling her home by then, and Narianne would be back!
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After the men had retired to their darkened bedrooms, Hazel stood before the great
apartment window staring out at the fantastic view it afforded, not only of the great city,
but also of this vast inner, horizonless world. The view really was overwhelming, and
especially so to her spiritual vision, which suffered none of the irritating restrictive limita-
tions imposed by the weakness of organic flesh. She was able without difficulty to pen-
etrate all the distant haze of cloud and mist, and even to zoom in her spiritual vision with
perfect acuity upon any thing that caught her interest. !t was a fascinating outlook, far
beyond anything she had every witnessed before upon the outer earth.
Due to her none-corporeal state she was even able to look up at the sun without fear
of blinding herself,. She hadnt been fooled by the clever trick that Naxos had played
upon Narianne and herself regarding either her seemingly substantial-feeling shell" or
the sudden ability to taste and even eat the food they had all en]oyed. Somehow, she had
learned within her spiritual mind, that it was essentially little more than an auto-sugges-
tive thing that had been external implanted in both her own and Nariannes psyches by
some arcane mentative power of Naxos. She realized that he must indeed be a very
highly and powerfully skilled adept in the occult to be able to exert such strong influences
over two spirits who were now themselves powerful Light Warriors.
However, this worried her more than a little, since he was, in effect, the supreme
ruler over this region of Avallah - and probably wielded considerable power among the
neighboring states. She recalled reading or hearing somewhere that PwI !ns !
IIup!, an ADsIu! PwI IIup!s aDsIu!I)1 and there was another saying that went
hand in glove with that: TnI Is n KnwIg !na! Is n! PwI. Naxos certainly
seemed to have access to an enormous fund of knowledge! Was it all nIs wn, she
wondered? Then she realized that, if one had been alive and in complete possession of
ones faculties for close to !nI !nusan )aIs, one could hardly nIp Du! acquire a huge
wealth of knowledge and expertise in every discipline imaginable!
!n any case, what was she worrying about Naxs for? She was ]ust about to go out
for a quick survey of the beautiful city - and perhaps even this entire inner world whilst she
had the chance to do so! Time was immaterial to her, so she could see it aII if she wished!
She flashed forth from the room and found herself in the midst of one of the many beau-
tiful floral parks that surrounded every towering circular structure. There were many
citizens strolling along the walkways, and she suddenly realized that some of them were
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regarding her rather curiously as they passed. Then it dawned upon her that she was still
vIsIDI and normal human-size - and garbed in the Earthing-type shell in which Naxos
had enclosed her. At the flicker of a thought she instantly changed her appearance to
match that of the female Avallans she saw around the park. She now appeared as an
eight-foot-six patrician beauty, dressed in shining white satin-like robes edged with fine
golden-thread filigreed needlework. Her naturally blonde hair was now as beautifully
coiffured as any of those about her.
None had noticed her instant transformation - or if they had, they must have put it
down to some passing trick of the light. Thus disguised, she was now able to walk the
pathways at her leisure, and take in the fresh warmth of the perpetual sunlight that
bathed the magnificent scene all around her. She ran her hand lightly over the richly
scented flowers and blossoms as she passed along, noting, much to her surprise, that
there were even D-IIK insects humming busily around the blooms of the plants and
trees!
!t was also then that she began to notice that everything about her seemed to be
vertically elongated or heightened. The trees were invariably tall and slender like poplars
or pencil-pines rather than bushy, even the plants and their flowers tended to be tall and
elongated. So it was also with the citys architecture. All the skyscraper towers were
cylindrical and almost impossibly slender for their heights. !t was as though they all defied
gravity with their very fragility, and this was reflected in the pedestrians themselves as
they ambled loftily by. Everything seemed to be reaching up to the sky, and it suddenly
struck her why this was so. The pull of gravity on this inner surface must be n!IaDI) Iss
than that on the outer surface of the Earth!
She then recalled something that had been raised on the egroup of which she had
been a member. Several of its members had become involved in a lengthy and boring
imbroglio of argumentative messages on the sub]ect of inner-Earth gravity. Some claimed
it would be the same inside as outside the crustal shell, others claimed inner dwellers
would float to the center of the hollow globe. Finally, the problem had been amicably
resolved by one of their groups more rational philosophers.
He had suggested that dwellers upon the outer Earth had to contend not only with
the thickness and mass of the crust ImmIa!I) unI !nII /!, but also that of the rest
of the crustal shell wnIn Ia) ppsI! to their position upon the surface - beyond the void
of the hollow !nner Earth - on the other side of the globe! !n this way, they were virtually
sub]ect to uDI !n gIavI!a!InaI a!!Ia!In of crustal mass than a person standing upon
the InnI crust would be.
A person standing on the inner-surface, however, would be affected only by the
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gravitational pull of the sIngI thickness of the portion of rocky shell upon which n s!!
That portion of shell ppsI! ! where he now stood, would be directly vI nIs na, and
would thus tend to exert its pull upon him In an upward II!In! This would partly
cancel out the wnwaI pull of the crustal mass on which he was standing, and so the
sum effect would be to make him volumetrically lighter in weight and taller! This was
wn) the Avallahans - and, Ips /a!, their fellow-occupants too - were all gIan!s!
Quite possibly, she thought, this fact had nothing whatsoever to do with them alleg-
edly (aIIng ! Naxs} being the so-called 5ns / G to whom the Bible referred!
!n any case, as she recalled from her churchgoing days, those particular Fallen Angels
were locked away in chains in the pitchy darkness of Tartarus until the Day of Judgment!
1n wnIn vn!, !nIs pIa mus! D TaI!aIus1 So why wasnt it pitch-dark? There was
definitely something oddly amiss, but since she ]ust couldnt put her finger on it, she
thoughtfully placed it on the back-burner" of her mind.
She could not be aware however, that at that same identical moment, Drew Nac-
Donnell was lying awake, tossing and turning in his bed up in the apartment, grappling
with these very selfsame misgivings! So abandoning all such negative thoughts, Hazel
continued upon her pleasant, meandering tour of the wonderful city, and its magnificent
amenities. She was astonished by the number of disc-like aerial craft that came and went
around its lofty buildings with their dreaming golden spires. What if these were the same
craft that visited the outer surface and spread so much alarm and speculation among the
UFO brigade? Wouldnt that be a turn up for the books!
!t was then that she noticed that some of the tall patrician passersby were still giving
her rather funny looks. !t took a few moments for her to remember that they were all
mind readers! Telepathy was the IIngua /Iana of the entire !nner Earth, as she was soon
to discover so one had to take care to mask ones thoughts as far as possible. Not an easy
task for a fairly new kid on the block in matters extrasensory!
At first she tried to hide her thoughts by whistling to herself. However, this only
attracted even closer attention, since it was apparently not !n n !nIng for anyone to
even vaIIz their thoughts in this silent city, much less wnIs!I a popular Julie Andrews
song from Tn 5un / MusI! `They most likely dont have any FavII! TnIngs
anyhow! thought Hazel! She realized all at once that, although this great city was a
magnificent place, it was a IasnIng DI of a place, too!
Acting on a sudden whimsy, she sat down on a convenient seat ostensibly to soak up
the silent ambience, but as soon as she felt that no one was watching, she flashed away
from the city at the speed of thought, up into the hazy whiteness of the sky, and into a
zone where she could think as loudly as she liked, without fear of being noticed.
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As she fled up into the sky, she was again utterly captivated by the fantastic land-
scape that extended forever, below, around her, and over her head! !t was a truly incred-
ible sight, and she was momentarily nonplussed as to where she should go next. Then
noticed an arm of blue ocean that reached inland, off to her right, and she saw a continu-
ously splashing glitter of sunlight upon its surface that seemed to be moving. She fo-
cussed her spiritual gaze upon this disturbance and discovered its cause. !t was a pod of
cetaceans of some kind, travelling along in a family school, in that same characteristic
plunging, ]ockeying manner so common to dolphins of the outer worlds seas!
Hazel, who had a great love for these friendly aquatic mammals, at once dove low
down to the ocean surface, and exchanged friendly greetings with them. Cetaceans are
well known for their ability to communicate telepathically, so she had no problems what-
soever in making friends with the happy-go-lucky creatures as they frolicked their way to
their next chance meal. The only problem was that they were all trying to talk to her at
once and this resulted in an almost mentally deafening babble of confused, gleeful thoughts.
They were also rather preoccupied with a school of fish they were following, and looking
forward to a great feast, which hardly helped Hazel to get much sense out of them.
However, a little further back, behind the main group, she came upon a lone mother
coaxing along an infant calf, and she was able to exchange some delightful thoughts with
her. Even though these were mainly concerned with infant-welfare. Hazel wished that
Narianne could be with her right now, since Narianne had been involved in kindergarten
and creche work back home in Canada. However, she stayed with the matronly cetacean
for a little while before finally giving her, her fondest love and good wishes, then shooting
back up into the sky again. At least she had encountered a familiar creature with which
shed been able to relate, and she felt in much better spirits for their brief encounter. She
was surprised at the total difference in the sea-to-land ratio, compared to the outer Earth.
There seemed to be one ma]or sea and various long straggling arms or reaches running
off it into the very large landmass. !n some respects, it rather resembled the Great Lakes
region of the central United States, although the areas of water were much larger and
extended considerably further into the surrounding land. Thinking of the land, Hazel
again swooped down across parts of it to examine its differing terrain. Some regions were
quite mountainous, and, to her mind, the mountains overall looked quite a lot higher and
snaIpI than those of the outer surface. Unwa!nI - that was the word she was
trying to find! They looked as though they had only been upthrust a mere few hundred
years ago. The sense of timelessness one got from the Himalayas, or even New Zealands
Southern Alps - to which she was no stranger - was simply not there.
Whichever direction she looked, the weather here didnt seem to do anything more
than drizzle occasionally. Nost of the moisture that created the thousands of rivulets -
which ]oined forces to fall gracefully down off the mountain ridges in arching cascades and
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vertical waterfalls - was formed essentially from the mists of low-lying cloudbanks. No
wonder the inhabitants seemed unconcerned about possible bad weather! She hadnt
seen a sIngI umDIIIa since shed arrived here!
This thought of water made her think of the ocean again and its dolphinlike ceta-
ceans. She remembered all the waffle that had gone on in the Net group about the
alleged Holes" at the Poles. Some members had been utterly convinced that these
connecting apertures between the outer and inner surfaces truly existed. But others, who
were perhaps a little more pragmatic about the total lack of visibility of any such holes,
tended to scoff at the Polar Hole theory.
However, it would certainly explain the presence of deep-sounding cetaceans, es-
pecially the great whales, which she had not yet seen, but believed to be present. !t
stood to reason that, if dolphins were able to get through, the larger whales should find it
a real breeze! She herself discounted the fictional accounts of ppI entering these
Polar Holes, but it was a well-accepted fact that most science-fiction was often founded
upon truth - either past or future! Arthur C. Clarke was living proof of the latter, as had
been Jules verne, H.G. Wells, Conan Doyle and Edgar Rice Burroughs before him! Such
men had turned out to be quite amazingly prophetic in their ripping-adventure" yarns!
Now that she was back over the land, she looked out for animals, and before long
had spotted herds of deer-like creatures and other, rather more bovine animals grazing
upon some of the savannah-like regions of comparatively flat land. !n the wooded coun-
try, she came upon families of apelike creatures, similar in many ways to chimpanzees,
either swinging or clambering around the dark trees, or gamboling and playing among
themselves in the glades and clearings. Occasionally she saw larger animals of a suspi-
ciously elephantine or rhinoceros-like form, but they tended to lurk under the tall shadowy
trees, and she was unable to decide if they were actually either of these. However, she
did notice the conspicuous aDsn of any large flesh-eating predators one usually found
among the ruminant herds shed seen.
However, she was delighted to note that DIIs were everywhere - many of them
entirely familiar to her. The seashores were alive with gull-like fish-eating birds, and the
forests were equally alive with the usual outer Earth varieties. How could they have found
their way inside the Earth if not via a Polar Hole? !t was certainly a problem! That was
unless these animals a!uaII) wIe what they appaI to be, and had perhaps been
brought here deliberately to stock the !nner Earth! But hadnt Naxos said that life had
developed inside and then been banished to the outer surface?
!t was all a bit too hard to figure out on her own. Naybe if she pointed all this out to
Errol and Drew, then they might be able to resolve it!
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She also noticed that there was a curious lack of reptile life in the !nner World. Well,
maybe it wasnt really all that curious when you thought about it and how they were dead
against the reptilians from inside the deep, dark crustal tunnels. But there were other
quite harmless reptiles such as skinks, and small reptiles like that, which were entirely
harmless, and besides, they might have been a useful food-source for some of the larger
prey birds. Naybe the Avallahans had exterminated all lizards and snakes completely.
However, this ]ust didnt quite seem to fit their general character.
!n Hazels view - apart from her still lingering uncertainty about Naxos - she ac-
cepted the apparently obvious fact that the ordinary citizenry of the region were a quiet,
vegetarian race who revered life and cultivated it in all its natural forms. Hadnt Narianne
mentioned something to her earlier, whilst bringing her up-to-date, about the people out
in the villages keeping pet gazelles and apes? They sounded somewhat like the Bud-
dhists, in their outlook upon all life being sacred. !f so, such a wholesale culling of a
particular order or species - or animals / an) KIn - would surely be repugnant to them?
!t would have to wait along with the other questions simmering away on her mental back
burner until she could talk to the fellers about it!
!n the meantime, she wanted to make a quick trip along to the Polar Regions of this
curious world to see if she could spot any interior signs of a polar hole anywhere! She
zoomed in the direction that she intuitively knew in her spirit to be northward. That was
the most popular polar aperture, as it had been touted most heavily in all the Hollow Earth
literature. She could always try the South Pole afterwards.
As she flashed northwards, she studied the general terrain, the cliffs and mountain
sides along the way, looking for other telltale evidence of possible portals. One thing that
struck her quite remarkably was the way the higher, mountainous regions of land were so
often of a Scandinavian or Scottish-highland nature in having many very deep and narrow
gorges enclosed between steep cliffs. They were very much like Norwegian fiords, and
the land above them was often much of a level height, like elevated rocky plateaus.
She had already noticed that the inner seas were far less in area than those of her
own world, and tended to be elongated, like the Great Lakes of the United States, or those
of her own countrys South !sland. As she flew across the interior of the shell, she passed
over several other similar, lake-like seas that were not connected to the larger Central
Sea".
!t was whilst she passed over one of these, en route to the inner Northern polar
sector of the inner world, that she noticed a curious commotion upon its waters. The sea
seemed to be spiraling around in a manner very like that of the great maelstrom she has
witnessed during their adventures within the lower crust! She paused in her northward
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flight to study this phenomenon more closely, and as she watched, a spinning hollow
vortex suddenly opened in its centre. Then, much to her surprise, one of the now-familiar
saucer-like spacecraft shot vertically upward from out its depths! Once it had attained a
reasonable altitude, the craft then caromed away at high speed on a level, horizontal
course to the south. This must have been an observation-craft returning from a recon-
naissance flight around the outer surface!
She then continue for the final three hundred miles or more until something deep
within her spirit told her she was now directly over the North Pole. She had no idea nw
she knew -whether the spirit was able to detect magnetic influences or not - she was ]ust
filled with an Inna! sns / I!aIn!) as to her position. But there was no sea to be
found in this region at all! !f there wI a connecting Hole" at the external North Pole,
surely it would continue right through to the !nner Earths pole?
The connecting Hole from which the spacecraft had emerged was actually at least
three hundred miles, if not more, to the su!n of the actual Pole! She did some hard
thinking then, searching her geographical memory. Finally, she decided that this placed
the actual portal somewhere between the actual Arctic Pole itself and the New Siberian
!slands. Perhaps in the bed of the deep Wrangel Plain, or the Pole Plain, one side or other
of the Lomonsov Ridge? The region itself didnt appear to show any signs of ice or snow,
presumably because its proximity to the Central Sun was no different to any other part of
the inner surface. So, having made a mental note of this, to pass on to Drew and Errol,
she decided that she had time to zoom back south to the opposite extremity. As she set
off, passing over some rather pretty, rolling green countryside, surrounded by the usual
heavily-forested mountains, her eagle eye was caught by a glint sparkling light in a long
valley off to her left.
A closer investigation revealed it to be an!nI I!) - but one much larger than
vallissum, and she observe a great deal of aerial activity around it as circular spacecraft
came and went to and from the place. !t differed, too, in that it seemed to be filled with
a veritable shimmering spectrum of pulsating light. This put her in mind of the mention
in Admiral Richard E. Byrds aIIg secret log-diary" of a Rainbow City" in a state whose
people were called the Arianni". Could this really be that same place? Hazel wondered.
!f so, then Byrds diaries were finally ]ustified! The circular saucer-like craft shed seen
were the famous Teutonic-sounding /IugIaIs he was reported to have encountered!
!t was beginning to seem that the entire !nner Earth must be populated by AI)an
5anInavIans - or their progenitors! No doubt, Adolf Hitler and his fanatical Nazis would
have been totally over]oyed to find that their legendary dreams of a Nordic Aryan Super-
Race" had been founded upon fact! Unless they were already nI! There had been
many wild stories circulating about a constant procession of Nazi U-Boats to and from
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Queen Nauds Land in the Antarctic continent ]ust prior to the close of World War Two.
There had been much speculation that the Nazi hierarchy - including HI!II himself
- had escaped thence, with all their stolen booty, as well as many technicians and Nazi
troops and naval personnel plus a superabundance of supplies, materials and equipment.
There they had entered a secret subterranean base beneath the icecap that had been
under construction and preparation for several years. These stories alleged that it was a
group of willing vIun!I uDIs of Hitler and his closest henchmen who had died in the
Berlin bunker as the Russians invaded Berlin. The doubles were subsequently sub]ected
to partially-immolation in a funeral pyre - purely in order to confuse their accurate identi-
fication!
Yet other stories claimed that Hitler and this nucleus of a new Nazi nation had
eventually found their way down through an ancient portal through the crust under the
Antarctic ice cap, and now resided inside the central Earth itself! As she recalled these
often-read stories, Hazel fervently hoped that they were not true, and that they hadnt
stumbled into the midst of the Fourth Reich - an !nner Earth Empire of Nazis!
She flitted southward and noticed yet another great city glinting in the far distance,
so she shot across the central void towards it. !t turned out to be yet another gorgeous
vision of glittering crystalline towers and spires, but this time with a far more distinctly
Asian appearance. !n many ways, its tall temple-like structures reminded her of some
shed seen during her backpacking travels in northern !ndia, Nepal and Thailand. Nany of
them had magnificently-crafted bulging golden domes and spires.
As she descended further she was able to see its inhabitants. They were of a slightly
more tanned appearance than those of the other two cities she had seen, though no less
tall. She instinctively knew that she was looking upon the famed ma]or !nner Earth City of
5namaIIan! Therefore it would be connected, by either a tunnel-system or a portal, to
its corresponding Asian mirror-site in the Tibetan Himalayas. The surrounding region
then, must be that of AgarIna, the largest of the seven !nner Earth states. Naybe
Nicholas Roerich, the traveller and mystic whod put Shamballah the Lesser on the map
now lived here permanently. !n addition, no doubt those ornately embellished aerial craft
plying in and out between the citys gleaming domes and spires were the original vimana
spaceships. Their technology had been given to the ancient Rama Empire, whose seven
Rishi cities had been built by the ancient Aryan Hindus. The Ramans were famous for
having been the only ancient nation that had withstood the full weight of the terrible war-
machines and vallixi airships of Atlantis.
This philosophical aspect was Hazels own chosen area of Hollow Earth study. De-
spite her earlier backpacking and underground caving adventures, she had never dreamed
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that sn might one day go in a!uaI saIn of the !nner World herself, Particularly not on
the as!IaI pIan! Shed had no real knowledge of psychic matters until shed first chummed
up with Narianne. All of the more adventurous and technological side of Hollow Earth
study had been strictly the bailiwick of the male derring-do" types such as Drew and Errol
and their ilk. Even Narianne had chosen a much more esoteric approach to the sub]ect,
by using her powerful psychic abilities, to unearth hidden matters relating to it. Nor had
MaIIann nIsI/ ever dreamt of actually visiting the !nner Earth either - even on the astral
plane. She uI have done so easily, but it had simply never occurred to her to venture
within!
Yet, now - thanks to Drews thoughtful recollection of them both from the old Hollow
Earth egroup - they were both almost pInIIng the way for the men - even if on the
spiritual plane rather than the physical! However, this way was infinitely better, since they
had no ponderous physical restraints, hardships and dangers to cope with, such as those
that had so impeded the three men.
Suddenly she realized that shed been allowing her mind to ramble, and now she
was beginning to feel a faint but insistent tugging upon her silver cord. Her body was
beginning to rebel! She had to get straight back to Glengarry, post-haste! The men
would have to cope for themselves until Narianne arrived to take her place.
DaIn I!1 She had s wanted to tell Errol and Drew - and dear old Chas, of course -
all about the many things shed discovered during her whirlwind tour around the !nner
World! DuDI DaIn 1!1 She paused for a moment to compose herself, and then, like an
invisible arrow, she flashed across the space-time gulf. An instant later was back inside
her uncomfortably stiff and aching body - which had been lying writhing and twisting for
the last few hours with an over-full bladder!
As Hazel awakened and raced off to the bathroom, she almost collided with Nari-
anne who was ]ust leaving it. Narianne clutched at her bathrobe sleeve to speak to her,
but Hazel had to shout, LaI!I, Iv, OIm In a sIamIng nuII)1 However, after Hazel
emerged feeling much better and also brightly freshened by a nice hot shower, she found
Narianne sitting in the lounge, disconsolately thumbing through a magazine whilst Joan
prepared breakfast for them both.
Whats up, love?" Hazel asked her. Oidve thought youd be long gone, to be beck
wuth the fellers!"
But Narianne said she wasnt feeling quite up to the mark today. She had decided
that, since !na! AvIs!aI gu) was going to take the three men out on a tour of the !nner
Earth that same day, she might as well take the opportunity to have bit of a spell. She had
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various personal chores to catch up on, and shed suddenly realized that shed not been in
touch with her Nom in vancouver. So let the guys have their fun! She could always take
a private whizz around the inner Earth on her own, next time they went off to sleep.
Anyhoo!" she asked Hazel, What sort of a night did )u have, honey? !ve no
doobt youve ]ust been sitting there in the apartment all on your lonesome while they
were all snoring their heads off?"
Hazel smiled at her brightly. Aha! Thets whure youre wrong, love, Oive beaten
you to it! You ought to know me bitter then thet by now, Nerienne! Oi did the 'Grend
Toor', moisilf!" she announced triumphantly. Then she went on to give Narianne a
potted version of all the sights shed seen and some of the conclusions shed formed along
the way. You reully owe ut to yoursilf to do the sime," she told her. Oi rickon Oive
learned more in thet one trup, then un all the toime Oive been studying the Hollow Earth
over thuise pest siverel years!"
At that point, Joan poked her head around the kitchen door. Dont you girls want
any breakfast today? Or were you waiting on me to fetch it through for you?"
They hurried into the kitchen and grabbed for the cereal packets. Bob was sitting in
his usual place, scanning a leading Brisbane newspaper, and grumbling about the lack of
any real news. !ts all bloody politics and sport!" he complained irritably. You wouldnt
think anything important was happenin anywhere else in the bloody world! An ! see the
cunning bastards have given themselves another bloody raise! Jeeze! ! dunno! An bloody
take a gig at !nIs! Four bloody pages about womens bloody /asnIns! !t gets right on me
works."
On, snu! up, BD!" cried Joan angrily. !ve had nothing but moaning and swear-
ing out of you ever since Drew and Errol went off on their expedition! !m beginning to
wish !d sent you off wI!n them!"
Nw she tells me!" said Bob, a trifle wistfully. ! mightve bloody well gn, too!"
The atmosphere in the kitchen was becoming a trifle hotter than the day outside!
The two young women, not wishing to witness a ding-dong row between Joan and
Bob, finished up their meal with alacrity. Then, after offering to help Joan clear the
breakfast things away, and their offer being politely but curtly declined, they headed
downstairs to their trailer, even if only to be out of earshot of the brewing argument that
was looming between Joan and Bob.
They seem to be doing en awful lot of arguing litely, dont they?" said Hazel wor-
riedly. Oi hope uts not on account uf us being here!"
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No, ! doobt it has anything to do with you and !, Hazel," Narianne said. ! rather
think its to do with Drew not being aroond, and Joans mebbe worrying aboot him more
than shes letting on! All we can do is keep on assuring her that the guys are all fine and
en]oying their trip together - and avoid telling her any negative any stuff aboot whats
really happening!"
But what uf something reully aw/uI heppens, Neriaenne?" asked Hazel, Oi mean
uf one of thim gits kulled un en eccident or somethung? Wed nv to brike et to her thin,
wouldnt we! Oi dont thenk Oi could hendle thet, love!"
However, Narianne was much more of an optimist. ! dont think itll ever come to
that, Hazel, but if anything like that were to happen - which God forbid - 1II do the telling!
So lets quit worrying aboot Joan, now, honey, and concentrate on oor men and oorselves!
OK?"
Hazel nodded and visibly brightened up, back to her old cheerful self again.
Dud Oi till you about heving a but of a chet to the dolphuns, boi the wiy? They cen
understend human thoughts quoite clearly! Oi hed a reully noice talk to a mother dolphun,
out in the ocean, end she was descussung all the troils end trubulitions of beung a parent
end brungung up a youngster, weth me! Et was quoite estonushung! The only trouble
wus thet Oi wasnt ible to impathoise fully weth her, not hevung any kuds of moi own.
Youd heve been far bitter et ut then me, what weth all youre ixperience weth lettle kuds!
!n the Kundergarten, Oi mean!"
Narianne was quite fascinated with the idea of talking to the animals - cetaceans or
otherwise. !t was in her genes, handed down through the generations of shamans who
had been able to converse with their animal brethren. For they had been brothers and
sisters to the ancient Red Nen.
Brother Wolf, Brother Fox, Brother Bear, Brother Rabbit, Brother Raccoon. The
famous Uncle Remus" stories of Joel Chandler Harris had been founded upon those old
!ndian legends and myths, which spoke of the relationships that existed between the
animals - and between animals and men, too. She had been told many such stories by her
beloved old grandmother, and had always carried a great feeling of love and kinship to-
ward all animals since then.
Even the forest trees themselves were believed by her grandmothers people to
possess living spirits! Narianne was happy that Hazel had discovered this sense within
herself, and she was glad, too, that she had reminded her of her wn deep empathy
toward animals! She could hardly wait to go out there herself now and converse with
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those gentle and highly intellectual creatures.
That day, they sat and talked together about all the amazing and incredible things
that had come to pass since their arrival at Glengarry. They exchanged a great many views
regarding their now deeply-beloved menfolk too, and how they hoped to develop their
relationships even further still, as they helped Drew and Errol to come to a far closer
understanding of spiritual and psychic matters. There was no doubt that both Drew and
Errol - yes, and even dear old Cnas, too - had already come far along that path. So they
were sure that eventually, they would be in complete unison and accord with their future
mates in body, mind and spirit.
Back in the !nner World, meanwhile, the sub]ects of their concentrated thoughts
and love had awoken and, although a little saddened and disappointed not to see either of
their inamoratas present, had made a good breakfast of cereals and fruits. Although to be
honest, Drew especially, was already beginning to tire of what was to him, at any rate, a
boring diet of vegetable-matter. He pined for a great steaming plateful of Joans excel-
lently fried eggs and bacon with sausages and fried tomatoes, wadded with wholemeal
bread, and washed down by a couple of scalding cups of good strong tea. With milk and
two sugars, thanks! He couldnt recall when hed last en]oyed such a great feed! !t
seemed as though it had been in another existence!
Errol was suffering similar pangs himself, but with the substitution of a two-inch
thick sizzling rump-steak for Drews bacon, and a couple of steaming cups of strong )ava
with cream, instead of the tea! The professor was pining for a great bowl of thick, salted
porridge, straight out of the pan. Followed by a pair of the finest kippers the North Sea
could offer, with a couple of slices of homebaked bread and farm butter! HIs beverage of
choice was a great pint-mug of scalding hot sweet tea, with no milk, but a wee dram of the
Craiture" added, to set him up for the day!
However, their mouthwatering daydreams were finally dashed by the arrival of Avistar
to take them off on a tour of the !nterior World. He told them that they would not be
calling in at all the regional capitals. Time would not permit him to absent himself for too
long, but he would allow them to see and meet with some of the people in their neighbouring
states of Agartha and Arianna, if they so desired.
They would not be meeting with Naxos this morning. He was extremely busy tend-
ing to affairs of state and public concern, but Naxos had specifically requested him to offer
them his regrets for not seeing them. He sent them his hopes that their ]ourney would
prove both instructive and enlightening, as well as entertaining. Now, if they were ready,
he would be happy to get the tour under way.
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They soon found themselves seated again inside what appeared to be the self same
craft that had brought them from the cave-mouth through which they had first entered
this amazing new world. However, this time, instead of having the disembodied voice to
act as their conducting guide, they had a physical one in Avistar.
Soon their craft was slid out of the tall round tower upon its curved platform. Under
Avistars mental guidance and direction, it took off from a standing start to accelerate to a
breathtakingly high speed within a mere couple of seconds. Yet, the occupants of the
craft felt no lurching change in their gravity or any high-pressured sense of velocity at all,
beyond what their visual senses told them!
Obviously, the craft possessed its own self-contained gravitational field, which over-
rode all the effects of external forces upon its passengers! Errol, being a great fan of Star
Trek" was already thinking feverishly about ion-drives and warp-speeds! Chas ]ust sat
there like a stunned mullet as he saw all of his lofty physics-teaching and the ironclad,
immutable Newtonian laws that he had cherished and defended like Holy Writ vanishing
before his eyes!
Avistar seemed curiously elated to the three men, and not without reason. He
himself was very ebullient with ]oy at this fine and rare opportunity to escape from his
onerous (an, I/ !n !Iu!n D !I, Ia!nI DIIng} duties as the Secretary to the Council.
!n response to Drews eventual inquiry about this, Avistar admitted that, because
the State of Avallah was so efficiently run, and problems or visitations were so rare, the
Council only met on fairly infrequent occasions. Thus he was often left with very little to
occupy himself - beyond the voluminous history of his people that he was currently
occupied in writing.
Naxos, he added, was particularly keen upon this personally motivated pro]ect of his
and duly read every chapter he wrote. From time to time, Naxos would suggest some
slight amendment or ad]ustment to some of the facts he had set forth. !t worried Avistar
more than a little, that the whole work might not be the entirely accurate account he had
originally intended it to be. However, since he had no desire to incur Naxos displeasure,
and since few people really knew the full details of their own history themselves, he was
happy enough to continue under this constraint.
Drew wisely left the inquiry there. He didnt want to rock Avistars boat any more
than he had to. The poor bloke would still be stuck here with old Naxos (I Nas!) as n
m ! pIIva!I) uD !n II}, long after they had gone home! !t was then that he
wondered if their conversation was being monitored in any way within the craft.
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Avistar picked up his thought instantly and assured Drew that the ship - like their
own apartment - was shielded by a unique energy-shield which did not permit any thought-
waves to either leave or enter it. This shield, in both cases, could be activated or deacti-
vated by the mere flick of a switch. He had taken the precaution of activating the shield
upon their entry into the craft. Obviously the same shield had been a!Iva! during
their first trip in the craft so that the owner of the voice - which Avistar ruefully admitted
to have been nIs wn - could control it by mentation.
They were all greatly relieved to know that they could think and speak freely without
fear of being heard - especially by Naxos - whom none of them trusted. Not even Avistar
as hed clearly revealed in the little warning chat hed had with them during their first
moments together in their apartment.
Now he told them to settle back, relax and en]oy the tour. He had no ob]ection to
them speaking out vocally if they preferred, since no one other than himself could here
them, and he himself had listened to enough of their tongue and its associated thoughts
to be able to keep up with their vocalizations. !n any case, this method of vocal communi-
cation was less likely to affect or disrupt the command-system of the ships mentally-
operated controls.
The three men welcomed this opportunity to spaK freely, and immediately began
to do so. Avistar was thus also freed to direct the ship with a greater degree of accuracy,
and without having to constantly mask out their often-chaotic thoughts from its delicate
neuronic-drive and control systems.
He began the tour by flying them all around the city itself - in and out of the forest
of skyward-reaching towers and spires - and, occasionally, touching down in its parks and
recreational areas so that they could better appreciate their floral and sweetly-scented
beauty. Like Hazel, only a sleep-period before them, they were delighted to discover
bees and other similar pollen-collecting insects bumbling around among the profuse riot
of blooms and blossoms. They also marvelled at the towering enormity of the tall sky
scraping structures all around them, which seen from this angle appeared even more
awe-inspiring than they had during their first approach.
Eventually, however, once they had seen their fill - at least for the present - of this
magnificent city, Avistar sensed their desire to go further afield and view the !nner Earth
itself in greater detail.
Their craft shot away from the beautiful environs of vallissum, and up into the heights
far above it, to a point somewhere midway between the gently-radiating Central Sun,
where he brought the craft to a full stop. There, it sat perfectly still, perching upon noth-
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ing in the near vacuum of the upper limits of the inner worlds atmosphere. Then he
pointed up at the much closer sun above them.
At this proximity, they were easily able to descry that it was not a discrete spherical,
radioactive starlike body, as they had thus far assumed. !nstead, it seemed to have
something of the properties of a magnesium flare or a sparkler, from which dazzling mi-
nuscule particles were constantly being emitted forth into the surrounding vacuum of
empty space. These particles shot away in all directions until they encountered the spherical
upper atmosphere of thin air. Here, they were immediately burned up, in much the same
way as cosmic dust or meteoric particles are upon entering the atmosphere of the outer
Earth.
This action in itself added considerably to the amount of light that filtered down to
the surface. According to Avistar, the Central Sun was in reality an aggregation of rare
ores and unknown metals that had been somehow collected and held in this central posi-
tion by the force of gravitation acting equally from every part of its inner surface. As long
as the gravitation remained the same over the entire inner shell, the body of interacting
material was locked immovably at the precise centre of the inner world sphere. As to the
form of interaction or reaction that was taking place within the loosely-congregated body
of ores and minerals, neither he nor any other scientists or sages of the !nner Earth had
thus far been able to determine.
However, they were certain that it was not a radioactive form of energy. Otherwise
its effects would have long since destroyed all life upon the ground beneath. !t had been
proved that its effects were highly beneficial to life, and certainly n! malignant in any
way! !t appeared rather to be some form of extremely long-acting nmIaI or /II!InaI
Ia!In, similar in some ways to that produced by the application of friction to sesquisulphide
of phosphorus, as in the common match-head. Nor had they been able, over the past
several thousand years of close observation and measurement, to discover the sIIgn!s!
ImInu!In of this curious reaction, or of its constituent mass, no matter how gradual or
minute!
The Scientists among them had long since given up grappling with this miraculous
self-replenishing enigma and had accepted it instead as some form of God-given phenom-
enon. Speaking of which, he added, this was the fundamental and all-important differ-
ence in the approach of scientists of the !nner Earth to their sub]ect, as compared to that
of their counterparts on the outer surface. !f a problem of science seemed inexplicable, it
probably was sIgn to remain so, by Him who had set everything in place and in
motion. Thus, they avoided trying to second-guess the Creator, by simply charging the
enigma to Him. There was a reason why the Great Spirit had not revealed every one of
His secrets to mankind, and it was not their place to man, or - worse still, to Invn! an
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explanation!
What could not be explained by logical and self-evident means by the !nner Earth
scientists and sages was left unexplained. Sadly, this was not the case with such seekers
after knowledge on the outer world, and thus they had filled their textbooks with invented
and assumed explanations. These inventions and speculations had then been generally
disseminated as incontrovertible Truth and Fact.
Drew and Errol were interested to note that Avistar seemed to direct most of these
points to the professor, who sat back quite dumbfounded by these things he had never
paused to consider. No doubt their host had already realized that the two younger men
- despite having been students of the older - had kept their minds open to receive new
information. They were prepared to toss out old, dubious ideas as they found simpler and
more logically acceptable ones.
Avistar however was wrestling within his own mind with the curious conundrum
presented by such a person as Chas. A man who obviously accepted the Great Creator as
being a true and factual Entity, whilst at the same time striving to cling to hoary old
concepts which essentially gave the lie to His Existence!
However, he eventually laid this puzzle aside and continued with the Tour. The next
leg of the trip was over much the same terrain already covered by Hazel the period before
and they were treated to, and marvelled at, the same scenes and sights over which she
had marvelled. They too, saw the cetaceans swimming a gamboling amid the warm
waves of the lovely pale blue oceans, and even witnessed the sudden opening of an
underwater portal as she had. Except that, on !nIs occasion, it was to permit the xI! of a
flight of three similar saucerlike craft to their own.
!t was amazing to watch the maelstrom form as if upon a command, and then, once
the three craft had dived down its gaping tubular maw, to see it slowly deform and cease
its swirling motion until the oceans surface was completely placid and unruffled once
more!
Drew and Errol were immediately bubbling over with questions regarding this phe-
nomenon. However, Avistar had already foreseen them in their minds before the two
could vocalise them.
Rather than ask me all the questions that you have in your minds," he said speaking
out loud, using verbal speech in a deep sonorous voice, instead of his thought-voice,
permit me to begin by explaining the mechanism by which these portals through the
crustal shell to your outer world are activated. You know, of course, the principles of
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!IKInsIs, and that this an ancient skill which was once used extensively all over you
ancient world to build large structures, and to transport great ob]ects to and fro?" He
stared at the three of them. Drew and Errol quickly nodded their affirmation, whilst the
professor stared at Avistar in bewilderment.
Well," said their host, now turned tutor, This is ]ust another manifestation of that
same force of mental power, produced by the will of the pilots of the craft you ]ust saw
descending. They have been trained, as have most of our people, to understand and
utilize this powerful tool that we carry in our minds! All !nner Earth children are taught
from a young age to use their minds for several psychic functions, most of which ! see you
already know without my having to catalogue or enumerate them. The simplest of these
is mn!aI !Ipa!n) - the most powerful is that of mn!aI s!Iu!In. However, we
endeavour not to allow any child to learn this last, in case they use that awful power
foolishly in some childish squabble, or fit of anger!"
Ahah!" he cried, clapping his hands together. "! see that !nIs truly astonishes you!
That we of the peaceful and placid !nner Earth should know anything of anger, or of envy,
or hatred - or the thirst for vengeance! Know this, here and now, my friends, that Edena
is noI entirely the wondrous Paradise it is often believed to be - or is IpIsn! ! D -
by certain of our more wishful Spirit-Guiding Emissaries of Peace and Light! !t is true that
we do collectively seek and hunger for these wonderful attributes to become worldwide,
as our Creator so deeply desires us to do.
Yet, there are nevertheless those, vn amng us, who are not beyond corruption
and the desire for even greater power. Why they n to be so is completely beyond my
humble comprehension, for ! have always been contented with my lot - which is largely a
happy one. ! will not name him, but you have already encountered ]ust such a one as
those of whom ! speak!"
The three were staggered at Avistars bluntness. Even though he had balked at
calling him by name, they were all very well aware that he could only refer to one man,
and that was Naxos!
Drew and Errol asked him more about Naxos and how he had betrayed his nation.
But Avistar seemed rather hesitant about going further. However, he did reveal to them
that some of the other nations which comprised the !nner population, were in fact refu-
gee-groups who had been rescued from other collapsing solar-systems in their own neigh-
boring galaxy, The Nilky Way". This, he said, should come as no great surprise to outer
surface-dwellers. Nany of the developed nations there had to accept large quotas of
refugees displaced by the constant round of wars that plagued their benighted world.
Whereas the refugees of the !nner World were gnuInI) nmIss, insofar that their
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n!II wIIs had been destroyed by their own suns, or by the approach of rogue meteors
on collision paths and the like. He said that they were all hominids of the same family as
man and were thus acceptable. But there were !nI intrusive and malignant extrater-
restrial species that lived within the actual crust, who were of a totally alien nature.
!t was then that Avistar finally opened up and told them that n nImsI/ had recently
discovered that Naxos had become embroiled in some sort of conspiracy with ]ust such an
alien race who wished to take over the !nner Earth. They were the so-called GIa)s, and,
although basically hominid in their superficial appearance, they had none of the redeem-
ing spiritual features of true humans. They were a cruel, insensitive hive-species quite
devoid of emotion, and thus more closely akin to Ins!s than men. For many years, they
had sought to dominate the entire Earth, both !nner and Outer, and turn its inhabitants
into slaves and sub]ects for their interminable experimentation in creating new hybrid
inter-phyla life-forms. They had stolen technology from the inner Earth as they had from
other star-systems, and they used similar craft. At first, they had been aided by the
reptilians, until they encountered a conflict of interests regarding dominion over human-
ity. Now however, Naxos was negotiating instead with the reptilians, who had managed to
overcome the Grays, wanting the world entirely for themselves. The Grays were now their
servants. He hoped that Naxos would be exposed and expelled before the grave situation
reached any crisis-point.
!t was at this stage of the tour that Avistar broke off this gloomy discourse and
pointed downward toward a vast, glittering ]ewellike city which had come into view be-
neath them. His guests had not noticed their approach toward it, being so deeply en-
grossed in him as he amazed them with his revelations.
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)8156)4
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C CC CCHAPTER HAPTER HAPTER HAPTER HAPTER 28 28 28 28 28
Now, my friends!" cried their host, "Look down and marvel, for this is the greatest
city of the !nner Earth! 5namaIIan Ine GreaI, the wondrous capital of Agartha, the
greatest and mightiest of all the nations of Edena!"
As they turned their gaze outward and downward, the three adventurers saw that
what Avistar said was no idle boast. !f vallissum had appeared as a vision of splendor, it
was but a mere town in comparison with this gigantic and magnificent metropolis of
Shamballah! !t was a glittering congregation of wondrous crystal edifices, totally dazzling
in their brilliance! The perpetual, gentle radiance of the inner sun was reflected from
them and so enhanced by the magical glow of their crystal structures so that they even
outshone it!
The buildings themselves were ineffably beautiful in their design and appearance.
Almost as glorious as that Holy City of God which Saint John saw descending out of Heaven
upon the newly-regenerated Earth after the Final Judgment, and the cleansing by fire of
its former weary old sin-corrupted and bloodstained surface. Even the pavements and
over-arching walkways of Shamballah echoed this likeness, in that they were translucently
crystalline in construction, as were the walls and domes, and the spires and minarets. All
of them emitted many-hued radiances of themselves, glistened and glittered with a myriad
inset precious stones.
So much so, in fact, that the ad]acent countryside of Agartha surrounding the great
city was illuminated by it for many miles. Within the range of its radiance, trees, buildings
and men cast two shadows - one from the stationary inner sun itself high overhead, and
one from the gleaming brilliance of the gorgeous capital! Noreover, because the radia-
tion of the crystals which comprised the city was of such great benevolence and healthful
effect, the crops and vegetation around and about its perimeters and outskirts blossomed
and bloomed in far more prolific abundance than in any other region of Edena! As also did
all of those fortunate souls who dwelled within the splendid capital and its salubrious
surroundings!
Such then was the opulent magnificence that now confronted the three friends.
The craft began to drop both in altitude and speed, and, whilst Avistar concentrated his
full attention upon avoiding close approaches by other airborne craft similar to his own, his
passengers feasted their eyes upon the visual treats that the great city now revealed to
their stunned gaze.
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Like vallissum, Shamballah offered many beautiful gardens and parks between and
around its mighty structures, which were clearly being well frequented by its citizens and
visitors alike. But there were also many great, imposing public buildings, displaying many
familiar styles of architecture. A goodly number of these great structures were clearly
highly-perfected and vastly-improved reflections of those classical and even modern styles
found in many parts of the Earths outer surface. But there were others of architecture
styles quite unknown and alien to the three visitors, however, their beautiful and graceful
lines were ]ust as much a ]oy to the beholders.
!t was now, as they moved along slowly at a very low altitude, no more than thirty of
forty feet from the ground, that Avistar pointed out the purposes of many of these mag-
nificent structures. Buildings that the men had assumed to perhaps be hallowed halls of
worship and other religious purposes.
However, Avistar quickly corrected them on this. He pointed at a particularly fine yet
familiar-looking almost Grecian temple, which boasted a magnificently pillared portico
with a vast flight of wide pink-veined marble steps leading up to it.
That great building yonder contains the finest works of all the artistic genius that
this !nner world has to offer!" he said mentally. For Shamballah is the greatest repository
of all the arts - both creative and scientific - in the whole of Edena! !n all of the Earth itself
- for there are works of art there that cannot be equalled by your puny dabblers up on the
outer surface! Since artists and craftsmen live long enough lives here to truly perfect
their skills, their works are completely matchless in your world." Then he added. No it
is not a copy of one of your outer surface temples, as ! perceive you to be thinking! TnIs
is the IIgInaI /Im upon which those particular Greek temples were patterned, by direct
spiritual-dream inspiration from the masters of Shamballah!"
The trio goggled at this thought, and at the concept of living such enormous life-
spans and the prospect of being able to perfect every skill and talent on possessed.
! only wish T could have been born to live for such a great span of years, and
accomplish all those great goals and ob]ectives !ve had to toss aside, simply because !
knew ! could never possibly achieve them. Certainly not within the sixty or seventy years
! might possibly have been given to live!" Drew thought - not ]ust to himself but to the
other three. Life might have taken on a completely different meaning for me! ! could
have tried my hand at so many of the cerebral and spiritual skills ! always felt ! carried
within myself, but knew !d never have the time to develop!" He sighed, heavily, then
added verbally, and with a wealth of ironical feeling, especially for the ears of Errol and
Chas. Life really 1s a pIpI Das!aI!"
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But Drew had momentarily forgotten that Avistar was a mentationist of the highest
calibre. Although he didnt necessarily comprehend all the verbal comments his compan-
ions made - especially in idiomatic language and slang - he grasped the fundamental
thoughts that lay behind them. Just as he now grasped this one.
Ah! Ny dear )ung friend!" he smiled, his thoughts shooting into Drews mind like
flashes of lightning. For you aI still very young both in body and in the spirit! !f only you
knew how very, very close you IaII) aI to living on /IvI - into aII !InI!)! You carry
the ss / a!n only within your pn)sIaI body - but they are nt in your mind, for your
mind is the true and ImmI!aI Yu. !t is your suI! That is the very part of you that can
live on to achieve all these things, and attain all of your chosen ob]ectives!
You still do not seem to able to grasp the fact that, like that Great Spirit who
created us all, we also are first and foremost !InaII)-IIvIng suIs1 The outer carapaces
that we !nInK to be ourselves are but sensory, mobile snIIs in which our souls can dwell
for an incarnation and experience things of substance. However, we are really creatures
of InsuDs!an!IaII!) on !nIs plane of carnal existence! !t is !na! unsn part of us which
aIIa) IIvs /IvI!
We have all lived many !nI xIs!ns beside this one in which we currently find
ourselves. However, many of us - especially those who are very )ung In spIII!, cannot
carry the recollections of past lives across the gulf of nang - which you call Da!n - that
exists between our incarnations. Our fleshly bodies die, and at that moment of extreme
crisis, our soulish recollections of that past existence are often xpung from our soulish
minds. !t is only as we grow mature and wise as souls, that we are at last able to recall
the things we learned in a previous existence! Once one can !nIs, then one begins to
really understand all of the Creators aspirations and desires for us to become like Him,
and aII !nIngs then become possible for us! Ones range of knowledge and comprehen-
sion becomes omniscient! Do you understand this?"
He stared at them all and they nodded gravely as his words filtered through into
their spiritual awareness. He smiled then.
Enough now of such wearisome lessons!" he said. We are here to see the wonders
of Shamballah, and to meet one or two of its great sages. ! believe that they wish to show
you some !nI wnIs too, that exist D!wn our two worlds! Let us view a little more
of this great city before ! conduct you into their presence!"
Avistar was as good as his word. He showed them many other great and diverse
buildings - each of which had its copies upon the outer surface. They saw great temples
of the !nca, Toltec and Nayan styles as well as those mirrored in the ruins of ancient Egypt
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and Nesopotamia. The great difference being, in every case that these were far larger
and fashioned from huge blocks of finely dressed crystal and marble. They even saw
Sphinxes by the score, as well as true pyramidal buildings, some with only three sides and
others of truly polyhedral form, with four, five, or even more sides. But all of them were
utterly seamlessly dressed and polished to mirror-finishes, flashing forth wonderful irra-
diations of coloured light across both sky and city.
Then Errol asked what they were for, since there was some argument in the outer
world regarding whether their purpose was as tombs or markers of some sort.
Avistar told him that they were neither. They were signalling-beacons that occurred
right across the local galaxy, having been placed there aeons ago by a race of adventurous
explorers from another star-system. They had closely surveyed and mapped this galaxy
among many others, and had left the original pyramids as beacons for those who might
later follow in their wake across the universe. Also the pyramids were indicators of the
development of wisdom on each world they had visited. For when its inner secret was
finally discovered, each pyramid was preset to radiate a signal-beam to their home planet
many light-years distant.
The pyramids of Egypt, alas, had been largely destroyed by the local natives, in
search of easily scavenged building material, so they could no longer perform the function
for which they had been intended. As had others upon the Earth, which had been
swallowed up in Earth-shaking cataclysms or now rested deeply submerged upon the
ocean floors. The ones here in Shamballah, fortunately, had been modelled upon the
In!a! IIgInaIs, and therefore, would already have performed their original function - by
relaying back 1nnI aI!n wisdom to the original surveyors - if they still existed!
This, he added, was the only case he was aware of, in which Shamballah had repro-
duced u!I aI!n technology. All other structural forms were first modelled here within
Edena.
As they traveled slowly around the city, they saw many other oddly familiar looking
structures, but they also took notice of the inhabitants as well. !t seemed that Shambal-
lah, was something of a multiracial society, as there were persons here of virtually ever
race, colour, and dress imaginable. !t was in many ways similar to one of their own worlds
multicultural and racially mixed capitals, except that here, almost without exception, the
inhabitants of the vast city were of giant stature. However, they did see - much to their
surprise - quite a number of people of their own size and form. Drew asked Avistar why
this was so, since they must obviously be outsiders.
Avistar agreed with Drew in this assumption. We have a good many outer Earth
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people here in Edena who have chosen to dwell among us, both from your own outer
world, and also from those many subterranean city-states within the crustal shell. As !
told you, the sages of Shamballah wish you to visit with them."
Then Avistar paused, as if debating with himself the wisdom of speaking further on
this matter. On the other hand, Errol guessed, he might have been conducting some
hidden mental discussion with an unseen party before spilling the beans"! That this
guess was correct was borne out by their mentors next remark.
! have been advised that they prefer to tell you about this themselves, and that
they now have free time available to see us. We can go directly to the central Audience
Chamber, and discuss all of these things informally over a meal with them! You can
consider yourselves very highly unmoored indeed - not only be granted an audience - but
also to be invited to share a banquet with such august Personages as these! Beside them
lesser beings such as Naxos are but mere servants!"
He laughed out loud at what was clearly to him a big triumph over his master.
Then he directed their craft towards a gigantic domed building, which had some-
thing of the Arabic or !ndian influence about it - or rather, perhaps, the architects and
temple-designers of those ancient nations had been influenced inspirationally by this build-
ing! Whichever was the case, as they approached the ornate crystal structure they were
enormously impressed by its sheer size and inner spaciousness. Their craft was able to fly
around InsI its massive dome, ]ust as a sparrow might flit around inside a temple or a
mosque.
The interior was brilliantly lit by some unseen inner effulgence, and the walls were
beautifully adorned with magnificently executed works of artistic decoration. These were
somewhat similar in manner to the tomb wall-decorations of ancient Egypt, but with much
more elegant flowery motifs and icons. Avistar permitted them a brief glimpse of these
wonderful adornments and the magnificently convoluted twists, twirls and arches of the
grand buildings inner architecture before landing.
Then the craft was finally brought to rest upon a great carpeted-pad, where giant,
orange-robed emissaries of the sages waited, to conduct them into the presence of their
masters. The four visitors were then directed along a wide and richly carpeted lobby or
antechamber, before finally halting before a pair of huge and magnificently carved crystal
doors.
The doors opened of their own volition at some mental command from within, and
they were conducted slowly into another vast chamber, at one end of which a raised
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circular plinth arose, on top of which an inner ringed area was enclosed. This turned out
to be an almost continuous, wide circular couch or upholstered sofa, strewn with embroi-
dered silk and satin cushions, and entered at the front by a gap of some ten or so feet. At
its centre was a beautiful round marble table loaded with a multitude of gastronomic
delights and transparent cut-crystal flagons of different coloured liquids. However, as they
were conducted up a few broad carpeted steps, the four guests were able to see their
hosts for the first time. There were three of them, all giant humanoid men of indetermi-
nate age, clad in wine-red robes over snowy white tunics.
Drew found himself thinking of their garb and general appearance as being much
after the style of the old Roman emperors - or perhaps the ancient Grecian Gods taking
their leisured ease upon Olympus! No doubt his thoughts were heard, as two of the sages
- for such they were - glanced up and smiled benignly at him as if this were a great
compliment.
They remained seated comfortably back among their cushions and waved their guests
to be similarly seated upon the opposite semicircle of the great round settee or couch.
This was moderately difficult for the three outer-earth men, since the couch-seating was
placed some three feet high, in order to permit their giant hosts to sit up in comfort with
their long lower limbs touching the floor. However, they all struggled up onto the padded
and cushioned circular settee and sat crosslegged - rather like the three wise monkeys,
Errol thought - much to Drews inner amusement, facing the sages. Avistar had adopted
the same reclined position as his hosts, and thus their faces were all on much of a similar
level.
The sages inclined their heads in greeting toward their visitors, who returned the
same salute. Then suddenly their minds were almost blasted by the power of the mental
word of welcome they emitted. Even the professor, who had thus far seemed impervious
to external thought-waves, almost fell backwards at the mental shockwave.
Then the central sage of the three spoke again telepathically to them, at a much-
reduced volume, in apology for not having first attuned their thought-power to the fragile
telepathic capacity of the three Outer Earth visitors. Please forgive us for our effusive
welcome!" he said. !t is a long time since we last spoke to men from the outer surface,
and we had great difficulty in penetrating their minds. But obviously yours are already
receptive, so we will continue in a less noisy fashion!"
All three sages then smiled at them warmly. Then the central figure again spoke but
this time to Avistar, thanking him for bringing the men to see them, and inquiring after his
health and the affairs of his own people. As the sage thus conversed privately with their
mentor, the three men were able to vocally whisper briefly among themselves.
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Hey, laddies!" breathed Chas in hushed but excited tones to Drew and Errol. Yon
middle feller would make a bonny laicturer at the Univairsity! He woulnae need ony
public-address seestem tae make hemsailf haird! Ah believe that Ah could nae doot dae
the same mafsailf, when ah get Hame, again!"
Drew decided to quell Chass enthusiasm a little by telepathically advising him it was
bad form to speak verbally in front of such personages as these. And although he was
pleased to hear that Chas had decided to deliver his University lectures telepathically in
future, would he kindly take care not to think any harsh or bad-language thoughts in their
presence.
Errol ]oined in here on the same telepathic wavelength: Welcome to the `Think-
Speakers Club, Chas, old buddy!" he remarked. Going to take up teaching by telepathy
when you get back home to dear old Edinburgh, eh? Great idea!"
This bit of repartee from Errol earned him a quick glowering scowl of annoyance
from Drew, who felt the mind of one of the sages to be focussed upon them as if following
their conversation. But the professor, who now had a new and interesting bee in his
bonnet was not quite so easily quieted.
Well, Ahll be damned! Thats no a bad thocht at a, Errol, mah bonny lad!" he fog-
horned in his great excitement at conceiving a far more efficient method of tuition by
using this wonderful new power in a particularly useful way.
We have taught by mental means here for many thousands of years!" a new voice
suddenly boomed in the minds of the three men, especially into that of Chas. ! have
heard before that you Outer Dwellers still instruct your young by primitive and inefficient
vocalizations. ! am greatly pleased to hear that you contemplate the application of our
time-honored teaching methods to your own disciples! Permit me to wish you well with
your scheme, Charles!" The sage whom Drew had noticed smiled benevolently upon
them all, and nodded his head toward the professor. ! myself was once an instructor of
the young!" he added.
Chas nodded and smiled back at the sage, and then stared amazed at Errol, who
spread out his hands in a helpless Search-Ne!" attitude.
By now, the central and presumably presiding sage had finished his polite inquiries
of Avistar, who appeared to be something of a diplomat, and he now turned his attention
back to the three newcomers and addressed them again by telepathy.
Forgive me if ! do not introduce myself and my colleagues by name. We we do not
use individual names, being the guiding Trinity of Agartha, and being always of one mind
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in our decisions and pronouncements. ! speak for both of my brethren, but ! am not their
leader. We perform our function con]ointly and in full accord in all matters purely for the
greater good of our nation, our people and our !nner world of Edena. Were it only so with
all the nations of this fair world of ours!"
Here all three sighed together, audibly, as if in mutual and heartfelt sadness over
some worrisome international difficulty in their demi-paradise world. Then the spokes-
man sage went on.
We trust that you have been suitable impressed by our city. !t has been under
constant construction now for some hundreds of thousands of years, and we are at last
approaching a sense of some moderate satisfaction with it - although much still remains
to be done! ! understand that Avistar, whom we hold in the highest esteem as an
excellent representative of Avallah, has told you something of our desire to show you
some of the mysteries that lie hidden between your world and ours, inside the Earths
ancient shell. Apart from an earnest desire to impart some of our wisdom, we also have
a very important reason for wishing to show you these places, as you will discover later."
Here he glanced questioningly at his two companions, as if asking whether they
concurred with his proposed revelation, and, after they had nodded their large heads in
agreement, he looked at the three Outer Earthmen each in turn with a most penetrating
and searching gaze, before continuing on.
Now ! would like you to pay close attention to what ! am about to tell you, for it is
of the most vital importance to both your world and ours!
! should perhaps remark, for your edification, that the shell has not always been
quite so thin as it is today, nor has Edena always been quite so large in its diameter. The
Earths shell has grown greatly in girth, even since ! was in my first incarnation, and is still
doing so as the plates of which it is comprised continue to widen and spread. Unfortu-
nately for your own outer surface, this has only led to and extension of your world ocean
- the dry land has remained roughly the same in area as it was in the beginning.
This has created a great problem for your external nations, who foolishly continue
to breed without control, and are swiftly running out of living-space upon the land. Con-
sequently, they are rapidly destroying the outer surface environment and atmosphere in
clearing away your forests to extend their cities and build new ones.
We have a plan which could solve this problem, but we are loathe to reveal our-
selves or our inner world to the national leaders of your outer world. We know that their
first thought would be to attempt to enter Edena with armed strength, and try to acquire
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our space for the expansion of their own territories! Of course, as you are no doubt
already aware, we have the power to destroy any such invading army, and even the entire
nation which sends them if need be! But we are a peaceful people and try to avoid any
use of violence or armed force, even in our own defence, should any rebellion arise in our
own world! Which may the Great Creator Spirit forbid!"
He paused again momentarily, and this time his glance was directed toward Avistar,
who nodded gravely back at him.
Our plan is twofold. !n the first instance, we have devised a way in which your
Outer Surface races can actually dwell in complete safety beneath the sea in vast crystal-
line domed cities, which would be lighted in such a way as to create the same natural and
beneficial light that illuminates this inner World of ours. We would be prepared to assist
in the planning and construction of such cities if your world-leaders would simply accept
our ideas and our help without imposing their territorial or political conditions upon such
help, or attempting to interfere in any way with our plans and our work. Once this part
of the task was completed, and the immediate problem of living-space resolved, we could
then proceed with the second stage of our plan.
This would be a much faster undertaking, but again one in which we would neither
seek nor desire any help from your Outer nations, neither financial - sIn mn) an
waI!n aI / n In!Is! ! us - nor materially - sIn )uI ppI n! pssss !n
IquIsI! ma!IIaIs n !n Ou!I suI/a. Our motivation is not one of power over your
world, nor is it to prevent your world invading ours. !t is entirely." he searched his mind
for a moment, then he said !t is entirely aI!IuIs!I! We seek only to help and do good by
our neighbours, and require no other thanks than to be left to live our own lives in peace
and happiness. Would that your own Outer Nations learn to apply these same ethics in
their own relationships with one another!
What we propose doing in this second phase, should your leaders prove willing, is
to construct a vast underground chamber which will serve as a self-contained world in
itself, so that all, or most, of your external population could make it their permanent
abode, thus leaving the external world free to regenerate itself and become an entirely
natural and beautiful worldwide ocean and land park - a great unsullied sea-life, plant-life
and land-animal reservation!"
His listeners gasped at the awesome vastness and wonder of such a grand scheme.
A world allowed to revert to its original Edenic state, as God had first intended it to be! !t
was a marvelous, staggeringly wonderful but allas, impossible dream! They could not
imagine their fellow inhabitants of the Outer World ever entertaining such a proposal.
There was ]ust too much avarice and power-hunger in the world of politics up there. And
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it would be the politicians who would nav to be the first to learn of the proposal. The
ordinary citizens of the world as Drew, Errol and Chas knew them, would hear nothing
about such a wondrous concept unless it was embraced by all the political leaders of at
least the leading powers of the Outer World, and agreed, signed, sealed and then broad-
cast by them as a single unified body. But wn was going to unify them? How could they
vI be unified in such a perpetually dark atmosphere of mutual hatred, envy and distrust.
The three giant Sages lay upon their sides, their heads propped upon their hands
picking at the culinary, gastronomical delights spread out upon the table before them and
listening to the thoughts of the three minds before them. They waved the three men
toward the table, and the spokesman Sage sent forth the mental signal that 5IIus
!nInKIng Is n mun D!!I wnIIs! n))Ing an xIIn! maI1 !t was !Iu, thought
Drew, recalling some of the history hed picked up with his Archaeology. Nost of the
worlds greatest and grandest decisions had been made during such banquets as this.
Even their own ancient Greeks and Romans had proven this to be true, hence all their
great affairs of State had been accompanied by a fine feast. !t helped focus the needs of
the body upon itself and left the mind free to focus upon cerebral matters! and it was
still so!
Thus the group sprawled around the table silently eating and drinking - or nearly so
- except in the case of dear old Din-Dins", as Errol and Drew both thought simultaneously
- shooting swift grins at each other. Apparently the three Sages thought so too, as Drew
noticed with a twinge of remorseful discomfort, realizing that they had picked up on their
shared thoughts regarding the professor, and his weakness for fine food!
Chas, however, noticed nothing of any of this, since two-thirds of his attention was
almost entirely focussed upon the banquet spread before him! However, the other third
of his mind was grappling with a solution to this matter of unifying the worlds leaders.
And he was gradually piecing it together. His academic mind was used to handling
problems that required disciplined logic. And he was contemplating the one thing that
could unite humanity in a common bond of agreement. What, he asked himself, was the
n thing that could unite mankind in such a way?
There was only one thing he could imagine that would achieve such a result. A
common threat to the existence of the whole world! Like millions of others, in his younger
years, he had seen movies and read terrifying stories of looming meteors or other such
bodies approaching the Earth on paths of certain collision and destruction, and had read
of how the governments of the Earth had pooled all their mental and technological re-
sources together in a coordinated effort to fend off or destroy such a common enemy. He
had seen similar threats posed by rampant alien viruses for which no nation had a cure.
And here too, the world had ]oined forces in unison to find a method of overcoming the
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threat, by pooling their medical Know-How. How strange that no one had ever actually
called the worlds governments together to save the Earth from its greatest and most
pestilential threat - Mankind himself !
The Sages had also been studying the professors thoughts with great attention, for
he had not only examined and isolated the problem that threatened both his own Outer
World race and that of the !nner world too, but he had also placed his metaphorical
mental finger right upon the only possible solution to the whole crisis.
Well done!" boomed the spokesman Sage forgetting in his delight the tender
mental senses of their guests. Drew and Errol stared in amazement and shock at the
sage and then, following his beaming gaze, at Chas, who was himself almost stunned.
This is the line of reasoning that we ourselves had quite overlooked, since we have
never had occasion to apply it in this peaceful, neighbourly and spacious world. So we can
now turn our minds upon resolving how it might best be implemented!" menitated the
sage, a little more softly.
Drew and Errol had been too busy contemplating the unimaginably great works that
the Sage had suggested for easing the burden of an overflowing world, to notice that
Chass thoughts had been racing on past those things, to the far more difficult political
problems such enormous works would be sure to arouse. The Sage saw their confusion,
and swiftly reiterated the problems - and their possible if frightening solutions that the
professor had been thinking. They suddenly saw Chas in the light they had first seen him.
As a wise and highly-intelligent disseminator of knowledge common sense and logic. And
they both doffed their mental mortarboards to his great intellect.
But now, after some hidden mental communication with his two fellow sages, the
spokesman of the three sages, was directing his powerful thoughts at them again.
We have decided on our plan of campaign and we wish to enlist your help in
carrying it out. Remember that whatever we may ask you to do, will, first and foremost.
Be for the good and salvation of your own Outer race, and all of their environment. We
wish you to stay in our land under Avistars guidance, whilst you decide if you wish to help
us - for although we uI influence your minds into agreeing with our wishes without
your ever being aware of it, we cannot coerce you to help us. !t is not in our nature.
Therefore, we offer you the freedom not only of Shamballah, but of the whole of Agartha
too, and whatever you wish will be granted to you.
All we ask is that you carefully and thoroughly discuss this task among yourselves
and then decide which it is to be. !f you decide n! to become involved in our plan, then
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so be it. We will respect that decision and you will be free to go - with our blessing! For
this older one here," he placed a giant but tender hand upon Chass shoulder, has already
presented us with the principal stratagem we have so keenly sought! All we need now is
your help in presenting our case before your World Leaders! !t is in order to gain the
evidence to persuade them that what you say is true, that we wish you to come with us to
visit those nations within the Earths shell!"
The Sage mentally regarded their ]umbled and milling thoughts for a moment, the
he added a final few words of comfort. You have no need to wonder and worry about
what you will say or even if they will allow you to speak with them! We will arrange all that
for our mental power is capable of reaching even the stars. We will pave the way for you,
and we will set the words you need to say inside your minds!"
Then he turned to his colleagues with a questioning look, but they both nodded
again in full agreement.
That, then is all for the present, my friends!" he smiled benignly. We will meet you
here again tomorrow at the same time-period and learn of your answer! We trust that you
wIII see it fitting to ]oin us, but do not be afraid of any consequences if you decide against
it! We have arranged comfortable rooms nearby, where your every need will be met.
And now, go forth in peace, my friends, with the blessing of that Great Spirit who created
us all!"
This time as they scrambled awkwardly down from the high circular settee, the trio
of Sages also arose - to a towering height of at least twelve if not thirteen feet, and
beamed down upon them, clasping their great hands together as if in prayer, and bowing
low before them. Drew and his friends did likewise, and sidled awkwardly towards the
carpeted steps, uncertain whether it might be regarded as a slight against Shamballan
protocol to turn their backs upon their hosts.
But they need not have worried. Avistar, who had remained behind for a brief while,
was already deep in earnest conversation with the three gigantic beings. As they walked
back toward the entrance of the great audience hall, they glanced back, and saw to their
amazement that the four figures on the raised circular dais were all limned around with
brilliant auras of blue-white light which were so bright that they almost dazzled the trio.
They glanced at each other in wonder and amazement. The last time theyd witnessed
this phenomenon had been when the saw the girls in their astral forms as great Warrior
Angels of Light back in that illusory hell-pit! However, they could only make a mental note
to ask Avistar about it later.
They turned to back toward the doorway of the chamber where two attendants
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bowed low before them, and the great doors swung open again of their own accord,
permitting them to exit into the wide and lofty antechamber which was entirely deserted.
Here they stopped and awaited Avistar.
Phew!" said Errol. Did you guys see that? Those fellows must pack some real
power for it to shine out of them like that! Now that was really sm meeting! !ve never
had such an experience in all my life! Holy Smoke! Ny poor old brain feels like its been
taken out, put through a wringer and replaced - DaK ! /In!! These guys certain know
how to give you the old Third Degree", what say, Drew?"
Yair!" Drew replied, with a deep sigh. But its only ]ust starting, mate! Now weve
got to decide if we want to sav !n wII - which is a rather tall asK in anybodys lingo!
All we actually set out to do in the first place was prove to the dear old professor here that
the Earth IaII) was hollow! ! certainly didnt expect to find myself turning into some kind
of 5upInI, mingling with eight or twelve-foot giants and whizzing around in a UFO!"
Aye! Anweve stell goat tae veesit all of these other places wethin the Airths crust,
too! put in the professor. Hooever, ah suppose its a case o !n for a penny - in for a
poond"! Ahm thenkin that we really should help yon giants ef we can! Ah still canna
believe a the weird things that have haippened tae us - an aI gaIn !a naIppn !a us
aifter tomorrow! Yon grond, tall 5ag feller was richt when he talked aboot the way the
Ooter Airths gaein! Ahve often thoucht tae mahsailf that it willnae be ower lang before
theres stonding-room only, if Nankeend keeps on breedinaway like bluidy flies! An Ah
ken fine their point when they talk aboot yon Superpowers tryin tae claim the Eenner
airth for their ain!"
So youre gonna vote in favour of us doing as they ask, are you, Chas?" asked Drew.
Ah, well! ! guess !ll have to sn that, Professor! Besides, ]ust think how itll feel to be
hailed as the Saviours / !n Human Pa! ! can ]ust see it now! Our pictures in the
paper, shaking hands with all the worlds Big Cheeses and Head Sherangs!"
"Oh, yeah - Right!" growled Errol. ! can ]ust feel the goddamn Presidents clammy
mitt in mine right now! Big Deal! They wouldnt give a rats ass if it was the other way
around! Just !nInK about it, guys! Am ! right, or am ! PIgn!?"
No, Errol, laddie!" cried the professor. Yere noI richt at all! !f the bluidy Airths in
as much trouble as yon giants tell us, an we can hailp oot en puttin maitters to richts - Ah
thenk were behoolden, as plain, seemple human folk tae do a thats en oor power tae
play oor pairt! Whats the bluidy maitter, wiye, Errol, mon! Dye no haive onny sainse o
human responsibility in ye at a?"
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OK! OK!" grinning Errol, raising his hands in surrender. You goI me, Prof! ! guess
! was kinda losing sight of the big picture there for a moment! Youre dead right of course,
old buddy, and !ll come quietly! ! guess were aII responsible for each other in this - or
rather, InaI world!" he pointed upwards. Or mebbe oIn! Who knows? Anyhow," he
added rather reluctantly. !f were still performing our TnI MusK!Is act, ! guess !ll
)us! naVe to come along with you guys and go through the old Cap!aIn MaIvI routine!"
They heard a sound behind them, and found that Avistar had finally re]oined them,
having obviously satisfactorily concluded his private business with the three Sages. He
looked rather grimly pleased with himself, but he told them nothing of what had tran-
spired. Obviously he had some private agenda of his own to pursue, and Drew had a
faint idea of what that agenda might ]ust happen to be. However, he said nothing of his
suspicions to the others. He would ]ust have to wait and see if they were confirmed first!
As they walked back to where they had left their craft, Drew suddenly recalled the
brilliant aura of light they had seen around the four figures. He asked Avistar about it and
mentioned that theyd witnessed the same sort of phenomena before, when it had sur-
rounded the angelic Avallahan guardians who had protected them from the reptilians and
also around the two girls, Narianne and Hazel, whilst in their astral forms as Angels of
Light. Was it some sort of Kirlian effect, he wondered?
Avistar looked a little nonplussed at his mention of the Kirlian process. So then, of
course, Drew had to explain the particular phenomenon that had been discovered by a
team of Russian physicists, in which the aura" of a live or recently-living entity could be
picked up photographically. This was achieved by means of a special type of process
involving a machine that basically included a Tesla coil and an electrical power-source, a
metal plate, a piece of insulating material. and a sheet of ordinary photographic bromide
paper.
Then Avistar smiled broadly back at Drew. But why would you need to go to such
technical lengths to observe someones aura?" he asked. Here in Edena, we can see
everyones aura at any time! !t is only a matter of time before your spiritual ayes will be
fully opened to all such phenomena" as you choose to call them! Why! What you see
there is simply the life-light of the entity. All living things emit such a light, and the more
powerfully their life-force flows within them the bright is the glow of their aura. !t is like
the vril! !t is especially strong when one is travelling purely in the spirit-form, when the
flesh cannot corrupt or reduce the flow, or when ones spirit is extremely powerful - as is
the case with the three great Sages you ]ust met."
He placed a friendly hand upon Drews shoulder. you have much to learn yet, Drew,
but it is better if you learn by encounter, rather than someone trying to teach it or explain
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it to you. Those great adept Nasters we ]ust spoke with have already lived through many
incarnations, each one a step higher than the last. Because of this, their spiritual wisdom
and strength has continually grown and increased through all the new experiences they
gained in each pre-existence. ! myself have already had many past incarnations, and am
now regarded as an elder spirit, but ! am still spiritually but a mere child compared to
such as they!"
Here Errol ]oined in the telepathic discussion. But when we looked at the four of
you in there, Avistar, your aura was glowing every bit as brightly as theirs were - you were
all shining equally brilliantly! We thought it was incredible! So how can you think of
yourself as being any less developed a spirit than them?"
Avistar gave great mental sigh, although he smiled as he did so. ! can see that ! am
going to have to work hard with you fellows! ! shone as brightly as they did only because
! was in their company! !t is always so! Positive spiritual power will always flow from the
stronger to the weaker, for in this way, communication becomes greatly enhanced and
facilitated between the parties involved! Thus, in a way, my spirit was drawing somewhat
upon those of the Sages! Probably ]ust as )uIs are drawing upon mIn, right at this
instant!" he added, partly in ]est. This is why ! sometimes have to leave )u from time to
time to regenerate my own psychic strength! However, my personal presence among
them, being positive and friendly, helped to buoy up their spirits to a large extent, so the
actual drainage of power was minimal."
Drew grinned at this comment. We call it G!!Ing awa) /I a wnII ! InaIg uI
Da!!IIs1 Then he had to explain what batteries were, to Avistar, and the principle by
which they operated. But after that explanation, he fired another question at their men-
tor.
You mentioned PsI!Iv spiritual power" before. What about Negative" power?
What effect does that have upon a positively-spirited person? We have met quite a
number of these kind of entities during our travels - especially poor old Chas here, he had
a terrible experience with ]ust such a one!"
Avistar understood him immediately. Yes, we too have had many similar experi-
ences, but fortunately, since we are generally much more powerful than them, having all
the additional power of the spirit which many previous incarnations bring, they can very
seldom stand against us, and have to flee. A strong spirit is unafraid of those of the Dark
Side. The reason is simply that most of the evil dark spirits that you encountered were still
mostly in their very first incarnation, thus they are weak and have to depend instead upon
instilling fear into the nsIus DIaIn of their fleshly opponent or victim. !f this Fear" ploy
works for them, they are then able to drain off some, if not all, of the spirit of their enemy,
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which helps to strengthen them and weakens the victim - even to the point of actual
pn)sIaI a!n, in many cases!"
Aye, thers na doobt aboot !na!, Aviastair!" re]oined the professor, loudly and vo-
cally. Ah lairned that for mahsailf at fairst-hond frae a great lummocking fiend directly
frae Heill itself once, when we fairst stairted oot on oor way through the Airth! Et was a
fair tairrible sensation tae hae yere ain sprereet takken awa from within yeresailf - Ah can
taill ye! Ah thocht that An was gaein tae I, for sure! "
But from what !ve learned of you since, Charles," replied Avistar, ! dont think that
they will frighten you to such an extent in the future, will they!"
The professor regarded Avistar shrewdly. Nannie, Ahve goat a queer feeling that
ye know a heill of a loat more than yere lettin on tae us aboot oor traivels! Were ye there
yeresailf, by onny stange chance, at a? Ah mind there were a squad o fellers very like
yeresailf, watchinower us whilst we slaipt on oor way doon tae the maelstrom! Where )
one o them?"
Alas, no. ! am sad to say." said their mentor, But ! know several who were selected
to guard you for much of the way. That is, until Naxos decided to see if you could fight
your own way through unaided! Nany of us tried to reason with him against this foolish
course, but Naxos had a strange idea that it would be amusing to see if you succeeded or
not! Alas, Naxos is not quite what one might regard as a normal Avallahan, he has a
peculiarly atavistic cruel streak within him which is quite foreign to our nature. !t is a
great source of worry to us all!"
Then, realizing that he might have said too much, Avistar fervently begged them all
to keep this particular thought locked away securely in their minds, and not to mention it
to anyone - not even if pressed to do so. Naturally they hastened to assure him that his
comment was safe with them. Whereupon, Avistar set about opening up their craft prior
to taking them off to their new lodgings.
Whilst their mentor and guide was thus engaged, it suddenly dawned upon Drew
what Avistars hidden agenda" might be! He could be plotting the overthrow of his
leader, Naxos! That might have been what he was so earnestly discussing with the Sham-
ballah sages! Not that he minded in the least, as he himself had felt nothing but Da
vIDs emanating from that unpleasant and pompous individual. !f he thought it would be
of any value, he would have offered his assistance in such a task!
Then he realized that, although Avistars mind was otherwise occupied, those of his
three companions were n! - and they were now staring at him quite fixedly, too. He
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could do little else other than perform a little pantomime of zipping his lips together, and
when he saw them nod in understanding, he relaxed again.
!t was as they were about to climb aboard their spacious circular craft at Avistars
beckoning signal from the interior, that they heard a familiar, clear bell-like voice chiming
into their minds.
Hey! You guys! Thought we might run into you here! Nind if we hitch a ride with
you!" The voice was unmistakably that of MaIIann, and her reference to we" implied
that HazI was with her too!
Everyone, except Avistar, who was sitting staring in astonishment at the scene, was
suddenly laughing and talking together. A passerby would have seen only the three Outer
Surface men grinning and vocalizing madly in some alien tongue, and assumed them to
be lunatics of some sort, for the girls were still invisible.
However, Avistar, whose mind had momentarily been almost swamped by the ca-
cophony of verbal and mental confusion - not to mention much emotion, too - immedi-
ately restored the girls bodily shells to them. Suddenly there was a loud cheer from the
three men, accompanied by happy laughter from the girls as they instantly appeared as
solid flesh and blood young women in their midst.
Drew seized Nariannes plasma-formed body around the waist with both hands and
pulled her toward him, How on earth - I InsI I!1 - did you know where to find us?"
he asked in wonderment.. For a moment he almost gave way to an overpowering temp-
tation to kiss her, but he knew that such a thing would never do in front of perhaps the
most important and imposing structure in all Shamballah. !n any event, he knew that it
was only a shell he was holding and not real flesh and blood.
Then he realized she was answering his question inside his mind, but very softly, so
as not to let the others pick up her thoughts. Ny darling Drew," she whispered into his
mind. ! could find you even if you were on the farthest star in the galaxy! Dont you know
yet the power that true love can exercise over the spirit? This was nothing! You were only
a mere eight hundred or so miles away! We ]ust wished - and here we are!"
Then she laughed up into his adoring eyes. Of course, if you insist upon the truth,
Drew, ! could always tell you that we went straight back to vallissum, and one of the clerks
in Naxos office suite directed us to Shamballah!" She laughed again, leaving Drew to
ponder wnIn answer was the IIgn! one!
Nuch the same scene had been played out between Errol and Hazel with only minor
variations. They too, were in each others arms and whispering sweet telepathic nothings
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to one another. Poor Chas, could only stand and smile wanly, and Avistar, patiently
waiting inside the craft, felt a great pang arise from the old professors mind, and he
caught an image of his emotive thought. A poignant memory of a fresh-faced Scots
lassie, with the highland wind tousling her long sandy red hair, running with outstretched
arms toward a much more youthful Chas, beside a beautiful blue loch.
Avistar felt a sudden sense of great regret well up within himself. How he envied
these fortunate Outer Earthers their ]oyful young lives! His own had largely been a
monotonously dull round of closely focused learning and mental discipline. He would try
to learn something of these capricious, but loving and emotional creatures whilst they
were in his care!
C CC CCHAPTER HAPTER HAPTER HAPTER HAPTER 29 29 29 29 29
Avistar directed the craft to its new destination in another part of the great metropo-
lis that was Shamballah, toward the place that had been selected for them as a lodging-
house by the Sages. His passengers, now grown to five in number, stared out of the
transparent circular walls in excited wonder at the new scenes and structures that were
passing under and around their ship.
The temple-like buildings were everywhere. For the most part they were of a pure
crystalline construction, but many of their great domes and tall spires gleamed with a
brilliant golden light as if they had been constructed out of that splendid metal, and
polished to a mirror finish. However, yet others again refulged the softer aquamarine
beauty of beryl, a pale blue-green that echoed the distant ocean shallows of Agarthas
only sea, and complemented their golden neighbours to perfection. The whole scene was
one of dignified magnificence, but was completely without any hint of the garish over-
embellishment such as one might see in many of the great cities on the Earths outer
surface.
One of the greatest buildings they flew over was the great College of Sages, of
which Avistar said there was also a smaller version in Shamballah the Lesser. This other
Shamballah, he told them, lay inside the Earths outer crust, and was one of the cities they
would be visiting with the Three Sages in the near future. He said that Shamballah the
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Lesser was the origin of Bn-P, a great religious faith that had embraced all of nature,
and closely echoed that of the !nner Earth. !t had been the birthplace of the Tibetan
culture of LamaIsm among the men of central Asia, who had later embraced the no less
admirable Buddhist faith.
Each of these great faiths had then incorporated most of each others tenets, and
had been instrumental in reaching out to a great portion of the Outer Earths people. !t
was a great pity that aII of the Earths nations had not become Lamaist Buddhists, as their
proposed mission would then be virtually unnecessary! The College of Sages in Shambal-
lah the Lesser had produced many great men of wisdom, including the first High Lama,
Tsong-kha-pa, whose greatest disciple, Gentun Drupa, became the first incarnation of a
long series of Dalai Lamas.
He went on to tell them that there was still a connecting tunnel-way that ran directly
from the College of Sages in Shamballah the Greater to its counterpart in the Himalayas,
but that few had trodden it for several centuries. !n response to a query by Errol, who
had always had a thing" about Tibet since he first read T. Lobsang Rampas book Tn
TnII ), Avistar regretted that, alas, he could not take them into the great College of
Sages below them, since it was forbidden to all except the initiated.
As Avistar steered the craft at a leisurely pace around the great city and its environs,
his passengers spent most of their time gazing in silent admiration and wonder at the new
sights and ob]ects that were continually being revealed. However, Drew, in between
looking into the eyes of his beloved Narianne, and admiring the passing ever-changing
cityscape, was still puzzled about the source of all the enormous energy that seemed to
power the entire city and everything in it - even its people!
You mentioned the vril" some time back, Avistar." he said. "Can you tell us any-
thing about it -or is that also a carefully guarded secret? We have heard of it in the Outer
World, of course, especially in connection with )uI world. One man wrote a book that
largely concerned that precise sub]ect, and his writings were taken seriously by one of the
greatest tyrants the Outer Earth had ever know! His name was Adolf Hitler, and its said
that he searched our world for the secret of vril, so he could use it to enforce his Nazi
ideology upon all its people! We would appreciate anything you could add to our knowl-
edge of this!"
Ah! Yes!" said Avistar, fingering his chin. ! recall this Hitler well from our studies
into the history of your world. Nethinks that Naxos might have similar aspirations toward
the whole of Edena! However, Hitlers search, thankfully, was fruitless, or you would not
be sitting here with me today! We were happy to learn that your race had eschewed the
pursuit of weapons using atomic fission and fusion. However, vril, when used destruc-
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tively, is as much more powerful than atomic weaponry, as is an atomic bomb more
powerful than a thrown rock!
Thankfully, the !nner Earth races long ago ceased to use vril as a destructive force,
and applied it instead to benevolent and useful purposes. This ship and all others like it,
are powered solely by vril power, as is all the lighting of every city in Edena! Crystals are
excellent conductors of vril power! Even our plant crops are enhanced in their growth by
its power, and our own excellent health and extreme longevity are due to our exposure to
its beneficent radiation. There are even those among our Sages who claim that the
Central sun of our world irradiates vril power down upon and into all of its surface and its
oceans! The light which you yourself remarked upon earlier surrounding the Sages and
myself, are a sign of this power permeating our entire beings - and ! will tell you all
something of value! The longer you remain in Edena , so will )uI wn IIvs an naI!n be
greatly enhanced!"
Drew looked around at his friends. Yes! He could already perceive a definite radi-
ance in their beings which had not been there before they entered the !nner Earth! Even
dear old Chas no longer looked old! Certainly he still looked mature, compared to Errol
and himself, but the wrinkles and blemishes of age upon his skin appeared far less notice-
able, and there had been a greater spring in his step than he had ever noticed before.
What exactly Is this vril?" was his next query of Avistar. !s it something like atomic
radiation or perhaps electricity? !s it some kind of natural force such as light or gravita-
tion, or is it an actual radiative element - similar to radium or uranium? Forgive me if !
seem inquisitive, Avistar, but ! have been particularly interested in vril ever since ! first
heard of it!"
Avistar gave a quiet chuckle at this. So also was your Hitler!" he said, in ]est. But
to answer )uI question, Drew - and, ! see, that of aII / )u - for ! can sense that you
would all like to live forever, if only you could retain your youth! ! can only tell you what
! know myself. vril is nn of any of those things you mentioned -and yet it is aII of them!
! know you must find this confusing, but it is true. vril in its simplest and most rudimen-
tary form is a curious fluid, not unlike that which you call mercury or quicksilver. However,
when it is sub]ected to various treatments, such as refrigeration, heating or extreme
pressure for example, its inherent qualities can be changed into several other forms.
!t really has much to do with nw it is applied, and to wna! it is applied. !n some
applications vril can be transmuted into a benevolent force that will heal and repair ani-
mate or inanimate matter. !n other applications it can be made into a devastating force.
!t can be tamed into an invigorating replenishing agent of vast medicinal use, or it can be
unleashed into swift and instantaneous weapon of violent destruction! !t can be used to
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IIIumIna! I)s!aI and thus provide a brilliant and endless supply of light - as you can see
aII aIun you! Or it can be used to repel and overcome many other natural forces - such
as undesirable and harmful radiations - like those you mentioned! !t can be made to
IpI gIavI!a!In - such as is happening IIgn! nw beneath your feet, even as ! speak! !t
can be used as a propellant force at unimaginable speeds, as in our spacecraft, and it can
be made to s!p that motion instantly! One can Ia! /II with vril power - or one can
x!InguIsn it with the same force!
But most importantly from our point of view, it can also be used to enhance, ex-
pand and recharge our own spiritual powers! !t is not merely a force or a power that is
limited solely to !nIs ImnsIn in which we currently exist. vril is an inter-dimensional
power which can not only aII) us ! !n s!aIs, but into an!nI ImnsIn altogether. !nto
an!nI unIvIs, if you will! You may not be aware of it, but there are many other
universes beside this one, and vril is the key to crossing over into them all! !t is not for
me to say that vril is a gift of the Great Creator Spirit. !f it were, one must wonder why He
would give His children such a dangerous double-edged toy with which to play!
Suffice to say that it was discovered in its liquid form as a presumed element of this
planet, by a former ancient race who dwelled within the crustal shell. !t was through its
application, that they were enabled to force their way into this !nterior World. A world, !
should add, which although bearing fossilized traces of a previous, far more ancient occu-
pation, had long been vacant. Whether there was then a sun such as we have today is not
recorded, for we can only base this history upon ancient legends. However, they made
this world habitable again, and over many, many generations, it has become as you now
see it! And that, my dear friends, is all that ! can tell you about VIII!"
Avistars totally rapt audience of five were about to roundly applaud his efforts, but
he waved them to silence.
Let me point out, before ! leave the sub]ect, that as you can now well ImagIn, we
of Avallah, Agartha and, in fact, aII of Edena, are n! pwIIss to en1orce uI wIII upon
those who rule the Outer Surface if we see fit to do so. !t will no doubt tell you much of
our forbearance and love of peace, that we have n! )! felt constrained to use this
terrible force to halt the rapine, pollution and desolation that your outer race is currently
committing upon this, the Home World of us all!
However," Avistar darkly concluded, it will be up to you three men to bring your
worlds leaders to realize this! !f they s!III refuse to act after they have been warned, it
may yet become an evil but necessary last resort, in order to save all of us who live InsI
and wI!nIn the planet!"
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Then he ended his lengthy discourse upon a slightly happier note. Of course, in
such a dire circumstance, we would retrieve yourselves and your loved ones, and bring
you all here to safety before finally resorting to such a dreadful act!"
For a long moment the five travelers were silent both in mind as well as voice, for he
had given them a great deal to digest. Then finally, Drew thanked him, saying, Thanks
for all that, Avistar! ! really only wanted to know what VIII was!"
However Drew, who was still keenly interested to know more about the vril weapons
that Avistar had hinted at, resolved to pump him further about these. His second great
interest in the academic world had been Archaeology - or rather of late -AI!Ina!Iv
Archaeology!
He most fervently wanted to discover if there was any connection between vril and
the ancient weapons that the Atlanteans and the Rama Empire had used in ancient times
in their constant battles, weapons such as Kapillas Glance" and other long range, ray-
type weapons that could raze a city with less fuss than dropping an atomic bomb upon
them!
Perhaps even many of the ancient battles and other acts of vengeful violence re-
corded in the Bible and other holy books might have been veiled references to the use of
vril. Why! Even the Hebraic Ark of the Covenant had contained a terrible destructive force
within it, which could kill any unclean persons who touched it - and there was, of course,
always Sodom and Gomorrah, and various other similar great and fearful incidents to
account for!
Could vril perhaps be a power from Heaven? These and a hundred other similar
questions fired his mind, but he had to let them hang for now.
They had to think hard about what their answer would be to the three Sages the
next day". Although, ]udging by what both Errol and Chas had already said about the
whole business, apart from his own final decision, of course. But his mind was pretty well
set upon going with whatever his cobbers decided. That was what the Three Nuske-
teers" had been all about. Sticking together! One 1or AII, and AII 1or One1 !n the
meantime he wanted to get some R 8 R" time away from all this sort of serious and
literally earth-shattering stuff!
!t occurred to him that hed not yet asked Narianne about how things were going
back at the dear old homestead. How was Bob getting along, now? Had the reptilians up
at the outcrop been properly sorted and eradicated yet? What had the police and the
Government blokes done about it? How was Joan coping with the whole turmoil that hed
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brought upon her tidily-organized household routine? Did Jimmy get over his ordeal OK?
And last, but by no means least - had poor Stans missus been looked after all right? Now
he suddenly felt utterly weary to the bone with all the palaver that theyd been through,
and long for it all to be over. Theyd done what they had set out to do, and now - look at
the new mess theyd gotten themselves into! He tried to imagine how the hell he and his
mates could possibly get off first base in going and talking to people like the Prime Ninis-
ter of Oz - let alone the President of the USA, and the British Prime Ninister! That wasnt
to mention the Presidents of China, Russia, etcetera, etcetera and so forth!!
Sure, maybe they uI pssIDI) dragoon the girls into helping out. Narianne could
chat up the PN of Canada, and likewise Hazel could do the honours with the PN of Enzed.
But what about !ndia, Japan, Korea, !ndonesia and Nalaysia - without losing sight of the
entire European Community, Africa and the Arab nations, an all the Central and South
American republican Heads of State! WOW! What the hell na they got themselves
into?
Naybe theyd better ]ust stick with the Superpowers - like the USA, Russia, China,
the EC and the UN, and let all the others ]ust sort of follow along!
He suddenly felt quite dizzy, and he wished to God that it was tomorrow-arvo, and
they could get all the whole business sorted out once and for all! Naybe if they could ]ust
get the Three Wise Nonkeys" - Hey! Watch your thoughts, mate! Their bloody tele-
pathic spies might be listening in anywhere! Fine bloody thing when a bloke cant even
think his own private thoughts without some nosey bastard having his ear up against his
mental keyhole! Yair! Naybe he could get the three wise old Sages to understand that
they didnt hobnob with fellers like prime Ninisters or Presidents..they might ]ust realize
that they were sending kids on mens ]obs?
Drews mind was still windmilling madly away when Avistar finally brought their craft
to rest on a protruding helipad" near the top of a tall hexagonal tower. This must be
their pad" for the night"! He had to smile to himself when he found that he was hoping
there might be a couple of six-packs of ice-cold Fosters lager in the bar-fridge! From
then on it was all more hustle and bustle as they were welcomed effusively by the hotels
manager" and his entourage of minions, into his humble establishment - or something
like that! Drew was virtually at the end of his tether. all he wanted now was to be let
alone for awhile and nobody messing with his mind. He didnt realize that his crisis of
wildly-]umbled, semi-delirious worrying was ]ust about driving his four companions to
distraction with concern.
As soon as the five of them were alone, Avistar took Drew gently by the arm, led him
away to one of the darkened sleeping-rooms, and helped him into one of the beds. Then
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he sat beside Drew, and searched Drews mind for those things he loved and held closest
to his heart. The giant Avallahan began to con]ure up comforting gentle thoughts of
Glengarry and his family into Drews mind. Drew quietly began to discover himself back
home in his own bed, with the moonlight softly falling across the beds counterpane, and
a cool breeze wafting in through the open window.
Avistar then swept all thoughts of his true whereabouts and the worries of the day
completely out of Drews mind so that it would be totally at peace for at least the next ten
hours As he stood up, the gentle giant saw with satisfaction that where a few minutes
before, Drews face had been was pale and drawn with stress and worry, it now wore a
beatific smile of peace and happiness. He tiptoed out then to re]oin the others who were
sitting around uptight themselves with worry over Drew.
He will be fine now for the next several time-periods." he told them. ! have sent
him home to bed at Glengarry, and he will awake feeling completely well and happy again
when he has finished his rest! So have no fear, his mind has been a little overburdened
with all the strange and alarming things that he has been told by the sages and myself."
He looked around their anxious faces. ! am sorry about that. We tend to forget some-
times that your minds are not as powerful as ours, and when we overlook that important
fact, we place too much data into them! ! will endeavour to avoid such overloading in
future!"
Aye!" Said Chas with some asperity. The poor young mannies been tryin tae be a
one-man band, shoulderin a the blether o all this poleetical noansense aboot
tellin the presidents an such that the end is night ef they dinna mend their bluidy
ways! Ah could see the puir wee lad getting his bowels a in a great knot as tae whaither
hed be able tae hondle et all! Yell hae tae tell yon Sage fellers tae gang a touch easier
oan the puir laddie, or Ahll wethdraw mah support for their scheme, an let the bluidy
world gae hang! Sae make sure ye lay it oan the line wi"em!"
Yeah!" said Errol. And the same goes for m too, In spas! ! reckon Drew came
]ust about as close to a goddamn crack-up as !ve ever seen, today! So how about you
guys ease your foot off the loud pedal a little next time we meet, or !ll be right in there
with the Prof here, and you can count m out of the whole shooting-match too!"
Although most of the actual phraseology of these two verbal censures might have
been as meaningless as Greek to Avistar, he nevertheless picked up every iota of their
actual manIng, and felt truly penitent and remorseful..
As ! said before." he repeated, ! wIII bend vI) effort to see that the Sages do n!
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overtax Drew - or an) of you - tomorrow, or at any future time. But let me please repeat
what !n) told all three of you earlier! You have n cause whatsoever to feel anxious or
alarmed about the simple work we wish you to do for us. All will be arranged and set in
motion for you - even the words you speak will be placed in your mind as they are needed!
We will monitor and field every question they ask, even before they even finish thinking
them!
We simply wish to use your minds, voices, bodies and personalities to put our plans
before these Heads of State. You have seen our mental powers, and ! have explained the
power of vril to you, also. So none will be able to resist you logical reasoning and common
sense. For it will, in reality, be uIs, channelled out !nIugn you! ! trust that you are clear
about that now?"
He looked around their faces and saw them begin to soften, as his words struck
home as being the plain, honest truth.
For the next hour" or two they chatted generally among themselves about a variety
of topics. Errol asked the girls how things were doing back at the homestead, and was
rather disturbed to hear about the rows that had been flaring up between Bob and Joan -
whom hed come to regard as proxy parents.
Sounds like some one who doesnt like what were up to is trying to disrupt things
for us - through !nm!" he remarked.
However, he was pleased to hear that the trouble down at the outcrop seemed to
have been finally laid to rest. He suggested that the idea of an exorcism, as someone had
suggested, couldnt do any harm, since they na been dealing with satanic powers. But
only if the problem started up again. Otherwise, it might be better to let sleeping dogs -
and demons - lie!
Narianne, of course, was bitterly disappointed that she couldnt spend more time
with Drew, but his well-being came first. The others felt sad for her, too. So she asked
Errol, should she be called back to her body before Drew awoke again, if he would give
him her dearest love and tell him to take better care of himself.
Upon hearing this, Avistar, who had been in some sort of meditative state during this
exchange, suddenly roused himself.
But my dear Narianne! Why should you not en]oy each others company In !n
spIII!7 ! know that Drews spirit is relaxing wide awake and happy upon his own bed back
in your world right now! Because T sent him there for that very purpose! There is
absolutely no reason why you cannot simply go back and ]oin him in the spirit - or perhaps
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you prefer the pleasure of uI company instead?"
He smiled benignly at Narianne as her ppIgangI face lit up brightly with ]oy.
Why on Earth - I InsI I! - hadnt sn thought about !na! idea! Then she suddenly
realized how fortunate it was that she and Hazel had gone back to sleeping down in the
trailer again, during this time of strife between Bob and Joan. She couldnt help but smile
rather mischievously. !t would have come as quite a shock -albeit a pIasan! one - for
Drew, to discover himself lying in his bed next to her own sleeping body! The mind really
boggled at all the possibilities!
Within seconds she had bidden her friends adieu for the time being, and almost
instantly, found herself in the big lounge-room of the sleeping, moonlit homestead back at
Glengarry. Her spirit almost went down into the trailer to re-enter her body, but on the
last moment, realizing that she still wore the ectoplasmic outer garment of make-believe"
flesh and blood, it struck her that it might be a bit of a tight squeeze! Then recalling that
it was Drews spIII! she had come to be with, she cast off the false facade" and wished
herself into his room instead.
To her surprise and disappointment, she saw that the room was empty. Where
could he be? Surely he hadnt woken up again already - back there in the lodging-house
in Shamballah! But she recalled that Avistar had put him under some sort of deep sleep-
hypnosis for several hours. Therefore Drew must still be here at Glengarry station! !t was
then she suddenly realized that her own spirit would find him - if she would ]ust stop
getting herself into such a state! So she relaxed, and instantly she was down in the
trailer where her body lay in her bunk-bed across from that of Hazel - and Drews spirit was
hovering over her sleeping form, bending forward to gently plant a ghostly kiss upon her
slightly-parted lips!
He instantly became aware of her spiritual presence and spun around, an expres-
sion of mingled delight and shamed guilt upon his face! he rushed forward to embrace
her, and, since this was the first time they had ever met one another on the astral plane,
it was a wonderful experience for them both - for they were as real and solid to each other
in this other dimension as they had ever been in the flesh! How long they hugged and
kissed and caressed each other is cannot be told.
Nor should it be. So let us here, for the sake of modestly, draw a veil across that
scene and instead, accompany them at length, outside to the big barn.
There they found Jimmy lying snoring peacefully in his bunk, a blissfully innocent
smile upon his grizzled and lined brown face. So, rather than disturb him - for Drew knew
that Jimmys people were extremely sensitive to the presence of spirits, they passed on
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instantly up to the great rocky outcrop which had featured so prominently in their affairs.
!t seemed peaceful enough now, in the pale bluish light of the full moon, and neither of
them could detect any active alien presence. However, there was no mistaking the faint
lingering atmosphere of evil that still clung to the place. Drew would be glad when he
could return here in the flesh and could perhaps level the place completely, so that no
trace of the evil reptilian blot remained upon the Glengarry landscape.
They sat and contemplated the peaceful moonlit scene. For a long time in the silent
communion of love. Then they made their way back to the homestead at a leisurely
floating pace. As they passed the horse-paddock. Drews giant steed, Daemon, suddenly
pricked up his ears, snorted, then whinnied softly in pleasure,
His great grown eyes turned directly toward the two phantoms. Drew felt sure that
Daemon had sensed their presence. He glided over toward the fence and stood hovering
an inch or so above the ground reaching forth with his insubstial ghostly arm to rub the
horses ]aw and forehead. This time, there was no doubt that Daemon recognized his
master, for he grunted and whinnied again softly in pleasure at this strange encounter.
And all the time, the great horse stared directly at that point in the air before him that was
occupied, in another dimension, by Drews face.
1 DI) Rnew I!1 cried Drew to Narianne. Animals can sense spirits! Just look at
this horses eyes ! Hes ." He looked around to see if Narianne was listening to him - only
to find her in a kneeling position, petting and stroking the Jacksons elderly Border Collie
dog, Ralph". But with hands that somehow he could /I and s, even though they
should have been invisible and intangible to him!
!t was all very wonderful and totally amazing! Drew was all for getting up on
Daemons back there and then and taking him for a gallop. A feat he felt sure would have
worked since Daemon clearly knew he was there and sensed his thoughts.
However, Narianne, pointed out that the horse was penned in by a heavy gate, and
asked him how he intended to open it! Drew stroked his chin at this. Then suddenly, an
idea occurred to him. Hed heard plenty about the power of the mind over the past week
or two, so he stood and glared at the gate-latch, willing it with every invisible atom of his
mind to open.
At first nothing happened. Then Narianne suggested that he might be trying too
hard. Just !nInK of it opening quite gently and easily!" she told him. Picture it happen-
ing In )uI mIn ]ust lifting itself up, and the gate swinging open on its own!"
Drew did as she said, adopting an almost nonchalant 1 Dn! CaI I/ I! Ds I N!1
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attitude - and L an BnI1 The latch lifted itself up slowly and the gate gently swung
itself open!
Drew stood hovering over the same spot, some five or six yards away, absolutely
astounded! But it wasnt to end there. With a quiet toss of his long flowing mane and
another gentle whinny of pleasure, Daemon trotted quietly out of the gateway, and stood
passively at Drews side!
Dont you think you ought to close the gate after you, Drew?" asked Narianne with
a delighted smile - for she was as astonished as Drew. She hadnt expected it would work
herself - but it na1 Drew repeated the though in reverse and the gate slowly closed
itself, the latch dropping into place with a quiet CIK. Then he thought himself up onto
the horses blanketed back - and it was so. Now, sitting weightlessly astride the horses
back, he clucked at Daemon and, in an inaudible voice said in his mind WaIK1 - and
Daemon walked! !t was almost too much to take in but it was really happening!
Then Drew called to Narianne to come and climb up behind him. As she approached,
he stooped and, grasping her spectral hand in his, he hefted her up on to the horses
nether quarters. He felt her grip him tightly around the waist, the only substantial thing he
had felt since they had begun this curious experiment.
With a loud mental command, he called to the horse. Come on, Daemon, boy!
G1ddapp!" and before they had time to wonder at it, the horse broke into a canter. At first
he took Daemon in a few circles around the yard, but the dog, Ralph, began to yap and
run around them playfully, so he directed the horse mentally to go off into the back blocks
away from the building. The two of them found it a weird and wonderful feeling. !t was
an experience filled with pure magic, and the old dog ran alongside them barking in sheer
delight. He looking up at them with his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth in a ]olly
grin, ]ust as though he could see them perfectly!
They rode for what seemed hours, stopping here and there to give both Daemon
and Ralph a rest from their moonlit travels. Sometimes when they stopped Drew took the
time to tell Narianne all the finer details of the things they had seen and done during her
absence. She was quite astonished at all the many developments that had occurred and
also at the plans of the Agarthian masters, as well as those of other !nner Earth nations -
who were in fundamental agreement regarding what the Outer Dwellers were doing to
the planet. She understood Drews perfectly human and natural misgivings about the
three of them being used as some sort of envoys or representatives of these hidden
peoples. However, she pointed out that in view of all that they had seen and experienced
of the power of the Agarthians in particular, there seemed to be no doubt that they were
entirely capable of delivering the goods"!
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What other alternative did the Earth and its inhabitants have, collectively, anyhow?
!f the Earth as a living entity in itself - Gaia - was to be delivered from the excesses and
the depredations of mankind, then that help would have to come from someone else,
since Nan was hopelessly incapable of solving these vast problems of his own creation!
And that Someone Else" could only be one - or both - of two sources. !t had to come
from the Great Spirit himself, perhaps directed through the agency of the !nner Earth
sages!
Drew agreed. This interlude which Avistar had so thoughtfully afforded him with
Narianne, away from all the dazzling mind-blowing bewilderment of the !nner Earth realm
had opened his mind again and he now saw the way ahead very clearly.
At length they realized that it would soon be dawn, and Daemon must be returned
to his paddock with the other riding-horses of the station, or there would a real turmoil.
So they rode back to the homestead, and were ]ust in time to shut the paddock gate
before Jimmy came limping out of the barn stretching himself in the faint light of the
piccaninny daylight. By daybreak, they hovered in the kitchen of the homestead itself, as
Joan appeared and began bustling about getting things going for the morning meal.
Shortly afterward, Bob also appeared freshly showered, from the bathroom. Whilst they
were both together, both Drew and Narianne used the full force of their mental and
spiritual powers to surround the pair in an atmosphere of calm and peace.
Their efforts were shortly rewarded when Bob, after going down to see if there was
any mail in the milk-churn nailed to a post at the end of the driveway, returned and gave
Joan a great big hug and a long loving kiss on the mouth.
What on earth brought that on, love?" cried Joan, trying to hide her amazed plea-
sure at this peacemaking overture by Bob. ! didnt think you cared very much for me any
more?"
Bob stared back at her with a repentant smile lingering around his lips ! know,
sweetheart! !ve been a total swine of late, and ! want you to try and forgive me, if you
can! !t was ]ust all that bloody great hoo-hah" over the outcrop and those creatures, and
what happened to Stan and Jimmy - and Drew being away in God Knows what sort of
bloody tight corner so far away. ! guess it all came boilin up inside me and ! - ! kinda took
it out on you! !m sorry, love! Please forgive me!"
Joan saw the tears welling up in the corners of Bobs eyes and she held him tight
whilst he wept unashamedly upon her shoulder. She patted his back in a comforting way
as they clung together, and told him to ]ust forget about it and that they would put it all
behind them - starting right now.
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By the time Drew and Narianne left the scene, Bob had already returned to his old
self again. He was reading the daily paper through his sturdy, horn-rimmed glasses. As
he sipped his pint-mug of scalding tea, he tore strips off the Prime Ninister, the Aussie
cricket team, grumbling that the bloody news was all a load of utter garbage and political
crap! Joan ]ust grinned broadly to herself as she prepared his breakfast, a fat tear of great
]oy rolling down each smiling cheek, to splash into Bobs bacon and eggs!
By this time, too, both Drew and Narianne were feeling the tug of their silver-
cords, as their bodies fought to reanimate, and by the time they got back to the trailer
Hazel had already risen and was shaking Nariannes body by the shoulder, with a hot cup
of tea in her other hand. Swiftly the two spirit lovers kissed each other adieu, then
Narianne shot back into her stirring body, and slowly sat up in her bunk.
Drew in the meantime, had already departed and was, almost instantly doing the
same, in response to Errol shaking nIs shoulder in the Shamballah lodging-house!
Hey! Hey!" bawled Errol cheerfully. Wakey, wakey, old buddy! Youve slept the
goddamn clock around, feller - if they have any such things down here - but my trusty
wristwatch says so, and thats good enough for me!"
Drew sat up on his couch-bed, yawning and stretching himself. By Gee, mate!" he
said, smiling up at Errol ! ]ust had a really fantastic night back home at Glengarry! You
simply wuIn! DIIv it, old mate! Narianne was with me all the time too, and we even
went out for a moonlight ride all over the back paddock on dear old Daemon, too! With
Bobs dog, Ralph, galloping along with us barking his head off! !t was absolutely bloody
incredible!"
Errol stared at him. You went for a ride on a horse? How the heck can a spirit ride
a horse? And Narianne, too? Aw, Shucks, buddy! You were ]ust plain dreaming! But it
sounds like you n)) it nevertheless, and thats what matters!"
Bloody Oath, ! en]oyed it, cobber!" cried Drew. And it was all bloody reaI too! You
ask Narianne next time she fronts up, Errol! ! reckon Avistar had a lot to do with it all.
Where Is he, by the way? Still in the apartment with Chas?"
Errol shook his head. No! He had to go flashing off somewhere during the early
hours. He came and woke me to tell me that somethings up back in vallissum. Apparently
our old buddy, Naxos, has betrayed the Council to the reptilians - or something like that -
and Avistar has had to go see them about getting rid of him! Always had a bad feeling
about that Naxos guy!"
What exactly did he ?" asked Drew. did Avistar say? Doesnt really come as any
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surprise to me either, to be honest! The bastard was evil! Beats me how they never woke
up to him themselves!"
Yeah!" said Errol, But they dont have such devious minds as we do! Theyre all
too trusting of each other! No, Bro. He didnt say precisely wna! Naxos had actually
done, but it was pretty bad. Avistar was really stirred up when he left! ! guess well find
out soon enough when he gets back. Dont forget hes due to take us back to see the
Three Stooges" later today!"
Hey! Shut up you bloody idiot!" hissed Drew. You never know whose listening in
over the Spirit Channel! ! dont think they like to hear you taking the piss out of èm!"
How can they hear us, buddy? Were talking vocally! And from what ! gather from
Avistar, they can only pick up directed thought-patterns" anyhow. They dont pick up our
actual words in English - you dumbbell!"
Drew considered this. He recalled hearing something to this effect before, so it
mollified him a little. As he rose from his bed and followed Errol into the living-area, he
said, Yair, ! reckon youre right, Errol. Anyhow, !m sorry if ! upset you fellers, yesterday
but everything ]ust suddenly got right on top of me, and ! kind of lost it for a while there!
But ! feel really great this morning - or wna!vI I! Is!
How did you get on after ! went to sleep, anyhow? ! recall Avistar doing something
with my mind, and the next thing ! knew, ! found myself lying in my bed back home
admiring the moonlight, and thinking !d ]ust dreamt all In1s!" He waved an expressive
hand around the scene outside the great window-walls around them. Hey! And where 1s
the professor? Did he go off with Avistar or something?"
Errol grinned at this. Naw! Hes still fast asleep in bed. He was up pretty late talking
to Avistar, most of what wed have called the evening" and into the early hours". They
seem to have IaII) nI! I! //, those two guys! Yacked away nineteen to the goddamn
dozen! ! was too busy canoodling with Hazel - as far as a guy an with a spIII! - to take in
much of what they said, but they sure covered a heck of a lot of academic territory!"
At that very instant, as if on cue, Chas ambled wearily into the spacious room.
Nan!" he said, giving free reign to a cavernous yawn, !ts heillish haird for a man tae get
onny sleep aroond thes place! What wi a the chatterin and ." Then he spotted Drew
standing beside the balcony doorway Wheel! Just look what the cat draigged in! Hoo
are ye the morn, mah young friend? Ye sairtainly look a heill o a lot baitter then when Ah
laist saw ye!"
He strolled over to a drinks-bar of sorts set up in one corner of the apartment, and
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poured himself a tall crystal tube of a pale green fluid. He held it up questioning to Drew,
who nodded vigorously. Then after pouring a second tube out for him, brought both over
to a nearby table with low seats around it - low, that is, by giant Agarthian standards - but
quite high for themselves.
Errol, who had decided to ]oin them in a drink, came over too, carrying a similar
crystal drinking-tube, but one filled with a pinkish-mauve concoction. Weel!" exclaimed
the professor again, with great bonhomie, Heres lookin up yer kilt, Neester NacDoannell!"
and they all laughed and drank a hearty draught of their drinks. Drew found that the
greenish liquid was very similar to a sweet sparkling table wine, and wondered whether it
might be an intoxicant. However, Chas read his mind, and declared that a man would be
hard put to it trying to get a skinful of Shamballah ale.
Yon Avistair feller an mahsailf got through aroond !aIn o these, afore he goat called
awa, an neither o us was anny the worse for wear!"
This reminded Drew of what Errol had said about Naxos apparent defection to the
powers of evil. Whats all this ! hear about old Naxos playing up, Chas?"
Och! Et appears yon Nastys been in league wi the reptilian scum, whore aifter the
secret o the vril poower! Nae doobt, wi the entention oapplyin et tae their ain wicked
pairposes! Onyhoo, one o the vaillissum cooncillors caught him entertainin a pair o the
daivils in his private chamber, an theyve arraisted him. Sae they saint for Avistair tae taill
èm what tae doo naixt!"
This seemed to amuse Chas somewhat, as he burst into a gale of laughter. What
the heill sairt o Cooncil must yon be if they canna make a deceesion for theirsailves, an
hae tae send for their clerk tae tell èm what tae doo?"
Drew opined that, since Avistar was their Secretary, his opinion and his casting vote
would doubtlessly carry some considerable weight in dealing with such a treasonable
matter. ! reckon he might even be a good candidate to take over as their leader - he
seems to be a pretty clued-up sort of cove! And a decent sort of diplomat, too - after what
we saw yesterday!" Then he grinned aside at Errol. !t was )s!Ia) wasnt it, mate?
Or is it still part of the same endless bloody Ioday"?"
Ay, weel!" said Chas. Ah suppose that a will be revealed in the fullness o time!"
then he went on. By the way, Andrae, ah have some eenteresting information for ye - an
)IsaII/, III - seein that ye were sae infatuated wi yer lady-friend ye didnae hear a hailf
o what Avistair said!!
Annyhoo!" he continued, Ah haid a grond long chat wi His Nibs aifter yed been
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put tae baid, an he told me a fine loat o new things aboot science an such doon here in
the Enner Airth! For exaimple, he told me that yon vreel poower, is all a maitter o degrees
or strengths as tae the sairt o results ye get froam et! Ets a wee bit like watter. At the
lowest taimperature it becomes ice, then, when ye wairm it up, ets a fluid - wnIn
nIn!aIII) Is I!s naI!uIaI s!a! - an when ye sub]aict it tae great heat it becomes scaldin
steam, an sae forth. Excaipt wi the vreel, the coolin an heatin is done through yer
mind! Dye ken what Ah mean, laddies?
Suppose yer dealin wi a pairson wha ye dina feel tae sure aboot. Ef ye feel /IIgI
in yer mind toward him, the poower will nIII nIm !a !n naII! wI /aI. !f ye feel wairm
towaird him, itll mak him feel friendly an at ease wi ye. But ef ye Inna IIK nIm a! a, an
he makes ye get a hot under the coallar, an furious wi rage, then etll either sIn nIm
or even DIaIs! nIm awa !a KIngm Cm, depaindin on hoo angry yer feelins aire! !ts
thait sairt o wapn, that ye can use seemply wi yer !nugn!s alone! Sae ye con see
that yon Avistars no a feller yed want tae cross swords wi! Noat unless ye have a
seemilair strength o mind! For Goads Sake! Could ye imagine what sairt o a mental duel
a pair olike-minded fellers could haeve wi that sairt o poower! Man1 !t doesnae even
bear thinkin aboot!"
But what if you were faced with an aIm) of enemies, Chas?" asked Errol. Like w
were, in that tunnel? How would it work then? ! mean you couldnt pick on n sIngI
mIn at a time and give it the works, like you could with a rifle, could you! Even if you
could, the rest would be all over you like a rash in nothing flat!"
No, Errol, you couldnae! But the VII doesnae work like that! !t was like a great
sweeping Ia) mn!aI nIg), that could destroy everything en its path! He told me that
the poower was once used by airmies up on the Ooter Sairface in the ancient times, an
theyd hae a group o fully-trained adepts at usin vreel poower richt there among èm,
who could focus their minds in unison ond blaist not only the enemys troops, but who
could also raze whole toons an cities tae the groond! And a that was up In oor wII! A
frightening thocht, isnae et! An Ah really mean that leterally, too - a DIuI) frightening
TnocnI!"
This information gave them all furiously to think - though fortunately nothing caught
fire as they did so! !t was as they were sitting pondering this amazing and rather hair-
raising power, that a small hovering circular platform stopped outside their balcony and
two young women stepped off it carrying trays of food in crystal bowls upon silver trays.
Surprisingly, they appeared to be normal-sized humans like themselves, with tanned com-
plexions, big brown eyes, fringed by long silky lashes, and long, blue-black shiny hair,
neatly coiffed into immaculately-twisted ringlets beside their ears and thick plaits down
their backs. They were both extremely pretty in an eastern Nediterranean way, and
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looked distinctly Grecian or Ninoan.
Errol fell for them at once, and would probably have asked them what they were
doing when they came off duty - had not Drew muttered into his ear: Whoa! Down, boy!
Remember Hazel, mate!" Their appearance was nevertheless something of a surprise, as
the men had assumed that all the !nner World of Edena would have been solely the
preserve of giants. Obviously there were other humans - either migrants or captive slaves
- from the outer surface, here, besides themselves! However, the two alluring young
maidens said nothing, nor did they appear to !nInK anything either, not u! Iu at any
rate. !nstead they ]ust placed the trays on a long sideboard, beamed beautifully at the
men, then, still smiling with beautiful white, flashing teeth, boarded their curious anti-
gravitational platform and departed again.
Well! Blow me down! cried Errol, after they had gone ."Hows about that then,
guys! A goddamn magic-carpet, complete with two lovely smiling houris! Hows that for
room-service", guys - like something out of Tn AIaDIan NIgn!s!"
Looked more like those athletic sheilas you see on ancient Ninoan vases!" said
Drew. But nevertheless, very delectable! Good ]ob the girls werent here, but!"
Beware o Greeks bearin gifties!" said the professor, hungrily eyeing up the deli-
cious-looking food on the silver trays. Nan! Ah could ]uist eat a bluidy nIs!" he cried,
vainly searching for a nice plate of sliced boiled ham or a pile of turkey sandwiches among
all the fruits an greens.
Looks tae me like were stuck wi]ust such a crowd o those same loonie vegeetarians
all ower this bluidy !nner World as we hae on the Ootside!" he cried plaintively, biting into
a ]uicy looking fruit that resembled a cross between an orange and a capsicum, and
pulling a wry face - even though it tasted delicious.
Unfortunately, this remark of Chass was true for all three of them A vegan diet was
]ust fine, and doubtlessly very good for one - provided one was a Vegan! Alas, they
werent, and the professors remark triggered off thoughts of sizzling steaks and hot roast-
beef sandwiches in his companions minds! However, they had to make the best of what
was on offer. !t still beat the pants off hunting for skinks and cockroaches, as they had
once had to contemplate down in the tunnels!
For another hour or two, after eating their fill, they ]ust lounged around staring at
one another or at the wondrous, yet by this time, increasingly DIIng cityscape outside.
Boring because it was all ]ust ! perfect, and in addition, apart from the two pretty hand-
maidens, because there seemed to be n!nIng gIng n around the place! Even out there
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in the fantastic array of marvelous buildings, there was hardly a sign of life. Just the
occasional circular craft, whizzing silently by. Otherwise, n!nIng!
Pity old Avistar didnt leave us his ship, or hire one for us!" said Drew. At least we
could have had a shot at flying it around the hinterland or something! ! think we ought to
be able to control one by now, dont you, Errol? After all, youre the whizz-kid when it
comes to planes and choppers!"
Yeah!" replied Errol. But the big problem is that these aircraft - or whatever they
actually aI - dont appear to have an) controls as such! !ve watched Avistar when hes
been operating his craft, and he doesnt actually Ioucn a damn thing! He appears to do
it all with his mind!" He sat and thought hard about it for a while. Then he suddenly said
"Didnt he say something about their spacecraft being powered by VIII, and that vril itself
can be controlled by mental or psychic power?"
Yesl I did!" boomed Avistars voice into their minds, and it can, and is!" They all
swung around to find that Avistar had ]ust entered their apartment via the balcony door-
way, beyond which his ship was now sitting gleaming brightly on its landing-pad. They
hadnt heard a sound, so silently did his ship operate.
! am sorry to intrude upon your thoughts, my friends, but upon our mental wave-
length, your human thoughts are almost deafening! ! could not help but hear your con-
versation - or at least the psychic component of it over the last several distance-units! !
fully appreciate your boredom, too! Alas, it was my own oversight again! ! should have
shown you how to operate the holographic image-screen before ! left! You would have
found much there to satisfy your appetite for entertainment and knowledge!"
He crossed to the wall beside the apartment doorway and plucked a rectangular slab
of crystal from a socket. When he turned it over, they saw that it was similar to a Tv or
video-player remote-control - except it had only four digital touch-panels engraved upon
it. There were no titles under the panels, ]ust as there seemed to be no titles or name-
plates upon an)!nIng they had yet seen in Shamballah! !t suddenly struck them forcibly
that the wII!!n wI didnt seem to exist here at all!
Avistar read their thoughts instantly. !n a world were aII are omniscient - an
endowed with perfect recall - what need is there of a wII!!n language?" he asked. !f we
wish to find a specific apartment or person, our minds direct us to them without need to
consult guidebooks or maps as do you Surface People!"
Then his fingertips danced a little tattoo on the touch-panels on the crystal re-
mote", and, to their utter amazement a hyper-realistic holographic scene began to form
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itself in the centre of the room. A six or eight feet cubic boxlike area of space, the black
boundaries of which seemed to meld invisibly into the rooms surroundings. !t contained
an incredibly realistic, tridimensional model of the inner solar system, with the blazing sun
at its centre, and the terrestrial planets revolving around their axes, as they followed their
orbits around the sun. The dense blackness of outer space filled the holographic zone",
and they could even identify some of the constellations of stars! !t was totally fascinat-
ing!
This is but one very simple example of the myriad things that are available to watch
through this viewer." said Avistar into their minds. But ! will show you more in a little
while. First, however, ! must tell you of my mission to vallissum - which ! believe has been
exercising your minds in my absence! !s it not so?"
They were keenly anxious to hear how things had gone. So Avistar, sensing their
interest in his trip and its outcome, flicked a panel on his remote-control and the hologram
vanished. Then he began telling them what Naxos had done, how he had been ]udged
and found guilty, and the terrible penalty he had been awarded!
!t seemed that Naxos had for a long time entertained delusions of grandeur regard-
ing his fitness to be the supreme ruler and potentate of Avallah rather than merely is elder
councillor. He did not like sharing power with others - particularly those to whom he felt
superior and senior in both encyclopedic knowledge and in spiritual power. Even though
the council had no power of supreme law over the people.
This was a popularly-selected council of wise and honest sages who did not IuI
over the land or its people. Their function was simply to guide its citizenry with their
accumulated wisdom, through any problems or difficulties in their lives, in their husbandry
and in their dealings with their fellows and neighbours. They received no remuneration
for their honourable roles, nor did they seek any special accolades or rewards. To be held
in such high public regard as to be deemed fit to serve all was sufficiently great an honour
in itself. Or so it was generally believed and accepted by most of its members.
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However, although being its senior member and thus regarded by most other coun-
cillors as its wisest, Naxos, was not quite as altruistic in his motivations, as the rest be-
lieved him to be. Outwardly, in all his public appearances and speeches - of which he
gave a good many - he made a great show of his pride in his service of the people and
often remarked that, after being elected by his fellow-councillors to be the chief among
them, he had thus become the servant of them all. This silver-tongued glibness (wnIn
Is n! unKnwn, aIas, amng pII!IIans / !n Ou!I suI/a wII} was received at its
face-value by the citizens of vallissum, and indeed of all the land of Avallah, who were as
innocent of guile as babes in arms.
But within his naI!, if not in his open thoughts, having tasted the first fruits of some
sort of power over his peers, Naxos nursed a secret longing for greater and realer power.
And, because power tends to corrupt - little by little, Naxos steadily became corrupted.
Although largely answerable to Naxos as Secretary to the Council of Elders, Avistar
was also the public face of the Council and its representative. !t was through him that all
requests for Council ad]udications upon matters of difficulty or contention between the
citizens were placed before the Council. Thus, to some degree, Avistar was much more
highly sought after by the ordinary citizenry of the land. He alone decided whether a
case should be placed before the Council, or settled out of Court" as it were. To some
degree, therefore, because this represented power in his eyes, Naxos began to perceive
Avistar as a possible IIvaI in his bid to become the Chief Ninister over all Avallah and thus,
its effective IuII - and eventual dictator.
Naxos also envied Avistar for often being elected by the Council to act as their
ambassador and carry communiques to the chief sages of its neighbour states. As he had
]ust done with the trinity of Sages who made ma]or state decisions for Agartha. Natters
such as the current serious problem that relating to the Outer Surface atmospheric and
environmental destruction and pollution. A problem which would eventually seep down
into their snug inner world if allowed to go unchecked
Naxos therefore sought to try and discredit Avistar by any means possible - and at
the moment, Avistar was closely identified with the three men from the despised Outer
World. !f he could show them up as spies or allies of those dark powers who hated the
!nner Earth, he could also bring down Avistar - whom he now saw in his megalomania as
the sole ma]or stumbling-block in his path to becoming the Ruler of the entire !nner Earth!
To this end, Naxos had contacted the reptilians and plotted with them to bear false
witness that the three humans were actually followers of their own evil ruler, Satan. They
would testify that they had been ordered to show the men the way into the !nner Earth.
There, with Avistars help, they could first spy out the land, then later, lead their own race
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down to invade Edena and exterminate its occupants.
Luckily, a small working-party of Council members had been working late in the
ad]acent Council Chamber, resolving a rather delicate administrative matter. They were
using a crystal thought-recorder to make notes of their deliberations, and due to its sharp
acuity, they had, by pure chance, picked up aII of Naxos mental conversation with the
reptilians in the next room!
This had been discovered when they played back their collective ideas to the full
Council the following day. !t was the work of but a few moments for a technician to isolate
Naxos covert thoughts and those of the reptilians - the whole evil plot was then revealed
and Naxos unmasked as a traitor! Being among those present, Naxos had been physically
arrested on the spot by a group of Councilors, and mentally interrogated by the collective
minds of them all. Even Naxos, for all his great wisdom and psychic strength, had not
been able to withstand them, and he had been found guilty of treason against the popu-
lace of all Edena.
!t was then that Avistar had been called in to make an unbiased ]udgment upon the
issue. He was regarded most highly as being a scrupulously fair and honest person, not
only among his own people, but also those of all other races inside Edena,. He mentally
played back the recording for himself and then questioned Naxos in person before a grim-
faced tribunal of councillors. Finally he had no other choice but to declare that the Chief
Councillor was, alas, guilty as charged.
Then came the question of what sort of penalty ought to be meted out. Again, in
the absence of any laws and penalties for such an unheard-of crime, the rest of the
Council devolved this onerous determination upon Avistar, particularly since he would
have been disgraced had the plot succeeded. After much agonizing consideration of a
fitting punishment, Avistar came back with a decree that, since Naxos had chosen to ally
himself with the reptilians, he should be compelled to take up his permanent abode with
them!
And so it had transpired. A message had been sent to the fiendish leader of the
reptilians, who feigned shock and disgust at such terrible duplicity". However, he would
be quite happy to accept Naxos into his care and endeavour to show him the error of his
ways - particularly since he had tried to involve his own innocent creatures in his dastardly
plot. Within the hour the pleading and weeping Naxos was deposited outside the very
tunnel from which the men had exited the reptilian realm. A group of madly-grinning and
cackling, winged reptilians then emerged to drag him screaming into the dark tunnel
mouth - never to be seen again!
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And so perish all enemies of the State!" cried Errol, excited and delighted.
But Avistar simply treated him to a contemptuous, dark glare. ! do not take any
pleasure from having been the instrument of Naxos end!" he boomed mentally. Even
though his perfidy so richly deserved it! Retribution and punishment may be the things
upon which your Outer Surface laws are based, but we in Edena are not so barbarously-
minded. Alas, in this case, had Naxos been leniently dealt with, he would have soon
attempted some even more cunning plot. !t was a necessary evil to be rid of him - but
nonetheless it was an evil for all that! But at least, you are saved, as am ! myself, and
now we will be still be able to serve the trinity of Sages and both of our worlds! So let us
think no further upon this dreadful thing, and turn our thoughts to more pleasant matters!
Are we agreed?"
Drew and Chas exchanged glances with Errol, who was looking a little pallid around
the gills at having incurred the wrath of Avistar, even if only to a minor degree. Obviously,
he was not a person to be trifled with! !t was the professor who finally discharged the
tense atmosphere by asking Avistar how long it would be before they had to ]oin the
Sages again. Avistar told him they still had three time-periods to wait before he took
them back to the temple-like palace.
Weel then, Aivistar, perhaips ye wouldnae mind showin us some more o those
mairvellous images yed stairted tae show us airlier?" he said vocally. An wed appreciate
it fine if ye could explain hoo we can use the theng oorselves?"
Avistar smiled at the professor. You will make an excellent diplomat, my friend,
when the real testing-time comes!"
He was now fully restored to his normal pleasant spirits, and he spent the next hour
in showing them many further wonderful, three-dimensional holographic scenes from
various parts of the universe, as well as from the Earths outer surface and its inner coun-
terpart from widely differing viewpoints in time and space.
The device seemed able to recall and reproduce scenes that could never have been
recorded by any living persons - unless they had been from another and far more ancient
solar system. For one of the most astounding sequences, which appeared in speeded-up
live action-replay format, showed them the Sun actually spawning the planets from its
disc-like, rapidly-revolving skirt of molten matter. Then the planets were seen to form
themselves into rounded spheres as they finally reached their orbitally-counterbalanced
positions in the solar system - each in turn passing through a zone where the planet
became cool enough to be habitable, and life was visibly able to spring up on its outer
surface. Unfortunately, the inner surfaces of the planets were concealed from view.
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Avistar told them that the original concept of this wonderful holographic pro]ection
device, plus many of its extremely ancient programs, had been brought from another
system in the galaxy, together with several other excellent concepts. Concepts such as
that of the generation of vril power itself - by a group of hominid survivors from that same
system, whose star had suddenly begun to expand prior to going nova". Their planetary
system must have already been tremendously old before the Suns had even begun to be
born!
This thought made all three of the men to take a mental step backward as they
realized that Nankind had unconsciously always tended to relate the age of the Universe
to that of our own Sun and its planetary system! Other, later programs showed close-up
scenes from the Earths outer surface as far back as its Triassic and Jurassic periods, with
many magnificent shots" of the great reptilian beasts that had thrived in those times. !t
occurred to Drew that these archaic films" - for want of a better term - must have been
taken from craft such as the one that Avistar possessed!
When he put this to their Avallahan friend, he said this was quite true, since the
!nner Earth had already developed into a civilized and high-tech" society long before man
had ventured out upon its outer surface. Although, it was entirely possible that it had also
previously been visited by men from some of the other planets. Planets such as Nars and
the former large fifth terrestrial planet that had mysteriously exploded in its orbit between
Nars present one and that of Jupiter.
This talk of other planets reminded Errol of the mysterious holes" that appeared to
exist at the poles of other planets. He had meant to ask Avistar about these - and those
other famous Polar Holes" that were aIIg to exist upon the Earth itself, as reported by
several polar explorers. But so many other amazing things had occurred in the interim,
that hed completely forgotten to raise the point.
Avistar smiled at this. O/ uIs the Earth and the planets had apertures at their
poles, he laughed, as if telling a small child that the Earth really was a round ball! Why
would they ever wish to uD! it? !t was through these holes that the air was replenished
twice every Earth orbit, so as to avoid the inner atmosphere becoming too stale! The
holes were not left open all the time, however, since this would permit too much contami-
nation from the outer atmosphere.
This was the principal reason why the Sages had formulated their Outer Environ-
mental Rescue Plan! They were not doing it purely for altruistic reasons on behalf of the
External Race. !t really worried them little if the Outer Race of men wished to extinguish
themselves, since they were a constant threat and hazard to the !nner Earth. This had
been exemplified by Naxos evil plan which had included the threat of an invasion of Edena
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by armies of men from the Outer Surface!
He told them that the possibility of such an invasion was a dread that lurked in most
mens minds in Edena, and they had even sent forth agents to mingle with the scientific
community of the external world to dispel any notion of the Earth being hollow.
But to return to the polar holes. As he had said, these were originally natural forma-
tions upon all of the planets, since they were all hollow to varying degrees. However, due
to the totally different natures of the !nner and Outer dwellers - the one seeking peace
and tranquility and the other war and disruption - it had been decided to create mechani-
cal portals which could be opened and closed at will, rather after the fashion of a spiral-
ling-shuttered iris, such as that of an Earthly camera. This had been a ma]or undertaking
and had required much designing and effort. But both had now been in place for the past
century or more, and worked perfectly well.
However, it was necessary, when the irises were opened simultaneously, to create
huge artificial storms or fogs around them in the Outer atmosphere so that they could not
be seen. Sadly, this had not been entirely successful, for a number of fishermen and
aviators from the Outer World na somehow found their way inside. But, since it was not
the nature of the !nner Races to keep any strangers against their will, they had been
allowed to return to the outer surface. Fortunately, thanks to the earlier disinformation
work of the !nner Earth agents among the scientists of that outer world, their tales had
been dismissed as total fantasies.
Even an Admiral in the Navy Air Command of one the strongest of that worlds
nations, had flown an aircraft into the northern Polar Hole. After being received and
entertained by the leaders of the Arianni, a nation who lived close to the north polar
aperture, had been given a great message of peace to deliver to his nations leaders.
However, after being guided back into the outer atmosphere he delivering the message.
Alas, his chiefs, after reading his report, had thought him to be temporarily deranged and
had ignored his message. The same thing had happened to others, too, but a great many
more had begged to be allowed to remain in Edena and were now excellent citizens of
different nations of the !nner Earth.
But since, then, because of the accelerating pollution of the outer surface air, great
strides had been made in devising and constructing giant air-scrubbers which removed all
noxious gases and impurities from the !nner Earths atmosphere, and it was anticipated
that the irises might never need to be opened again until the pollution had ceased and the
Outer surface had been allowed to fully regenerate.
He recalled one fairly recent occasion when the !nner Earth atmosphere had been
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severely contaminated, not by the machinations of Outer Nen, but by a vast volcanic
eruption upon the outer crust. A massive cloud of cloying dust had swirled around the
outer atmosphere for many Earth months", and unfortunately, the polar apertures had
been unwittingly opened whilst it was at its worst. Normally they were left open for ten or
twelve Earth rotations about its axis, and it was not until the fifth rotational period that the
influx of this dust had made itself manifest.
He recalled it himself. !t had taken a long time for the dust to finally settle on the
!nner surface, and it had caused a great deal of damage to the vegetational environment.
This was another very convincing reason for the installation of the mechanical irises. !t
had happen a few times in the past. The worst such event was at the end of the time of
the giant reptilian monsters on the Outer Earth. !t had necessitated the temporary seal-
ing of the apertures which at that time were always open. !t was finally ascribed to a great
body falling upon the Earth, and almost destroying it in the process.
Drew suggested that the more recent event was probably the explosion of the island
of Krakatoa in the Sunda Straits in 1883. He told Avistar how it had caused a tremendous
earth-shaking impact at the time the island exploded, which had been both heard and felt
over two thousand miles away in his own land.
Avistar suddenly clapped his hands together. Ah, Yes! Of course! Now ! recall that
w aIs felt that great shock even here in Edena, and it was very shortly before that
terrible dust began to creep into our world!"
Drew then went on to mention that the other, even greater event, during the time of
the dinosaurs was the impact of a gigantic meteor close to the land where Errol lived. !t
was believed among Outer Earth scientists to have been the cause of the demise of those
great saurians. This was due to its enormous dust-cloud of exploded pulverized rock and
gases blotting out the sunlight and causing vegetation to die off and the atmosphere to
become icy for several orbits of the Earth.
Avistar was delighted to find that the three men were all knowledgable scholars.
This will please the Sages greatly!" he thought into their minds. Your excellent knowl-
edge would greatly enhance your credibility and chances of success I/ you agree to go
upon the requested mission!"
Then he paused for a moment as if listening to a far-off call. ! hear that it is now
time for us to return to the Sages palace. They are ready to learn what your final decision
is regarding the mission. So let us go now and resolve the issue!"
Chas looked at Avistar keenly. But, man!" he cried. Surely ye alraidy ken weel what
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oor answer will be! Yeve haid time enough wi us tae scan oor thochts on the sub]aict!"
! have indeed!" agreed Avistar. But the final agreement mus! be conveyed II!I)
from your minds to those of the Trinity of Sages. Agarthian protocol demands it. !t is not
for me to act as your emissary or advocate in such an important matter. You must commu-
nicate it directly mind to mind with them! And now let us go! !t is unseemly to keep the
Trinity waiting!"
Chas was about to ask why theyd had no lunch, until he recalled the feast they had
en]oyed during their previous audience with the Sages. He was therefore the first of the
three after their mentor to step aboard Avistars waiting craft!
As they settled down in their seats and Avistar began to raise the craft from its pad,
Drew suddenly remembered something he had intended to ask their giant mentor. Tell,
me Avistar," he asked, speaking mentally, !s it possible or permissible for us to learn how
to control these craft of yours, or is it some mental or psychic skill that only !nner Earth
people have the psychic power to master? We would love to learn how to fly them if it
possible or permitted!"
Avistar smiled at Drews naivety. Of course you may learn! !n fact ! will show you
myself how it is done after our business with the Sages is concluded. !t will be my great
honour and pleasure to train )u aII as competent pilots! !t is not such a great or difficult
thing to learn!"
Then he took off, and Drew was once again mystified at the complete and utter lack
of visible controls of any kind. No ignition-switch, no ]oystick, pedals, or throttle-controls,
not even a single instrument! Not even a compass! N!nIng1 Avistar ]ust simply sat
comfortably at ease in his own separate seat with his hands resting easily upon his knees.
The other two also watched his management of the craft every bit as mystified as Drew.
Until Chas threw a knowing wink at Drew.
Ah raickon An know whats the secret!" he grinned craftily, leaning forward and
addressing Drew in a whisper. Ets aII 1n Ine m1nd, mah wee mannie! Ye ken hoo tae
ride a DI)I, do ye not?" and when Drew nodded vigorously, the professor tapped his
temple with a knowing finger. Weel then, yell ken the ainswer tae the trick of et!" and
although Drew and Errol both stared hard at Chas, trying to get his drift, he simply sat
there beaming and nodding enigmatically at them.
But Avistar simply smiled to himself. Chas, he thought to himself, had not become a
great scholar without good cause! He dig out the appropriate colloquialism from the
professors mind then pro]ected it into the minds of all three. TIs as easy as r1d1ng a
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1Re!
Suddenly - or so it seemed to the three men - they were !nI! Avistar again guided
the craft into the great, high-domed building and set it down again upon the great car-
peted pad in the vestibule. Again the orange-clad giants helped then down, and con-
ducted them along the grand lobby and once more, after a momentary pause, through
the gigantic, carved-crystal double doors. They found themselves once again gaping in
awe at the ma]estic proportions of the vast circular domed chamber. The wonderful inner
san!um san!Ium, where the three great Sages awaited them upon their elevated
dais, each now seated crosslegged in an Eastern fashion, upon the circular cushion-strewn
couch, like a trio of benignly-smiling Buddhas!
The four visitors stopped and bowed low before the three wise ones, who bent at
the waist with their hands palmed together as in prayer, and bowed their own heads in
response. Again it was the central sage who acted as the principal thoughtsman for
himself and his colleagues.
Welcome once again, my dear friends!" he boomed, mercifully a little more softly
that he had at their last encounter. We are pleased to see you all again, and we trust that
you have rested comfortably and been well-cared for since last we met?"
!t was Drew who acted as their spokesman this time, having carefully rehearsed in
his own mind what he would say to them. We have, o noble sage, and we are most
grateful for your kindness and consideration. We are ourselves happy to meet you again
all again, and we trust that our business together will be fruitful and pleasing to us all!"
The leading Sage smiled benevolently back at Drew. Then he did a surprising thing.
He beckoned their mentor forward, and placed his left temple close to Avistars in what
was the equivalent of an inaudible, whispered-colloquy, except that they conversed in
thought. Then after a few seconds of this silent exchange, Avistar stepped back and
bowed deeply to the trio, nodded encouragingly toward the men then turned and exited
the great chamber, leaving his three charges alone with the trinity of Sages!
Now the spokesman Sage further astounded them by addressing them directly in
vIDaI speech, and in perfect English! We have decided, for this occasion, to dispense
with unnecessary protocol and formality, in order to avoid placing undue strain upon your
minds, and thus make our conversation more open ad free. You owe us no allegiance
since you come from the outer Earth surface, and yet we are greatly impressed with your
honour and respect for our status in Agarthian society. This is one of the most desirable
qualities we seek in those we wish to represent us in your world, since your own leaders
will find you acceptable for the same reason."
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He paused here for a moment, as if pondering his next remark, but they sensed that
he and his two fellow sages were exploring their minds. They seemed satisfied.
Now, without further ado," said the spokesman Sage, ! must put the question
directly to each of you as to whether you have decided to assist us, or not, in the way we
discussed at our last meeting. First yourself, Drew!" he said, much to Drews astonish-
ment that such a high personage as this would even know his name. Do not be amazed!"
smiled the Sage, We know as much about each of you as you do yourselves! Now, Drew
- How say you to our proposal? Yes or No?"
Drew looked him directly in the eye and said one word. Yes!" The Sage placed
a hand upon Drews head, and his two companions placed theirs on top of his. Then they
murmured some words in an unknown tongue for a moment or two, before removing
them. Drew immediately understood that something very profound had happened within
his mind - Nay! - Within his very spIII!! For he felt filled with enormous sense of euphoria,
and immense power now seemed to surge back and forth, not only in his mind, but
throughout his entire being! Then, as Drew moved back, it was Errols turn to step up to
the fore, to be called by his name and sub]ected to exactly the same ritual. When he too
eventually stepped back beside Drew, he was trembling with great exultation, and had
great difficulty not shouting out loud to drew about how he felt inside!
Now it was the professors turn and he was addressed as CnaIIs before answer-
ing in the affirmative and receiving the same wonderful infilling of knowledge, re]uvenat-
ing power and confidence as his friends. As the three Sages prayed over him, Charles
swayed around like a bush in a breeze, but he managed to stand his ground, and in due
course, he too was filled with the wild inner urge to rush madly about shouting to the
world how wonderfully fit and strong, and how )u!n/uI he felt!
Now the three men were invited up onto the circular dais and told to sit down and
relax, for the remainder of their business would be informal. One of the Sages rang a tiny
silver bell and immediately a group of beautiful young women similar to those they had
seen at their guest-house entered bearing a wondrous array of assorted comestibles,
sweetmeats and drink-flagons of the same magnificent crystalware they had seen before.
As the young serving-girls left, after placing their delicious burdens upon the great circular
table, the Sages waved the men to help themselves to whatever they wished. Which
they did, falling upon the grand banquet with great gusto!
!t was at this point that they first really noticed each other, and saw that a visible
change had overcome them all. For not only had they each taken on a brand-new and
larger visual image, but they also gleamed with the same brilliant aural radiance as the
Sages themselves!
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This was the same shimmering and sparkling effulgence that they had seen in Nari-
anne and Hazel when they had appeared as Angels of Light! Their dazzling blue-white
auras stood out at least nine or ten inches from their bodies, and when their hands came
close to touching each other, as they reached for the food stuffs, there seemed to be a
pleasantly tingling, almost electrical exchange of sensation between them! The whole
experience went far, far beyond anything any of them had ever experienced or imagine in
their lives, religious or otherwise!
But now the Sages had begun to get down to the business at hand. This time, aII
!nI of them spoke verbally and easily with the trio of renewed men in English. !t was
one of the other two who now opened the discussion.
You will now be aware" said he," that, in view of your excellent decision, we have
invested you with the full power of the VIII, so that in spiritual and psychic strength, you
are now as we ourselves are. This is not a thing that we confer lightly, especially upon
those who are not of our race and our realm, but it is essential for our purposes in the task
that lies ahead. So we must request that you do not abuse this power, for, knowing your
race as we do, you will surely feel that you would like to find out how far it extends! Just
as a charioteer with a new chariot and a new team of magnificent stallions always desires
to see how fast they will gallop! ! know this to be so, having been an officer in your
ancient Roman Army in a previous incarnation! Chariot-racing was my favourite pastime.
But now ! learn that it is àu!mDIIs !"
He smiled at this amazing recollection as if it had only been a week or two earlier.
Then he went on.
So, since two of you are of a similar age to what ! was then, ! must warn you to
learn to n!II this power D/I you attempt to apply it to any great degree! You will
find that it is far beyond what might seem natural or even human, and you will be able to
do many mighty things with it. Not merely in terms of mental strength and ability, but in
the physical sense, also. But you must always be on your guard against I! becoming )uI
master, instead of )u being the master of I!! Be patient and you will soon learn to control
it to within a hairs breadth! We have seen fit to grant this to you because there will be
times when you will stand in great need of it, and we may not always be on hand to help
you. !t will always be available to you now , for once given, the power cannot be returned
to the donor. We are indeed greatly relieved that yonder Naxos, of whose demise Avistar
has already told you, had not yet received the full power of the vril, even though he had
developed his own psychic powers sufficiently well to perform party-tricks! He was able
to give your female friends corporeal shells whilst they were among us in the spirit. But
we can - as can you also now - bring their entire natural bodies through the dimensions of
space and time without hurt or in]ury!"
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This was an astounding thought for all three of them, especially Drew and Errol,
since it would enable them to bring Narianne and Hazel pnys1caIIy across the gulf of
space-time!
But the Sage had read their thoughts clearly. !f this is your desire -as ! see clearly
that it is - it can be done whenever you wish. But until you have properly learned to control
your powers, ! must recommend that you let us do this thing for you. Ah, yes! The
impetuosity of youth! Whenl Well, we will first conclude our business and then
afterwards.." Here he paused as one of the other sages leant across and touched his
temple to that of the speaker. They sat thus for a moment obviously exchanging inner
thoughts, until the speaker nodded sagely, and the other drew back to his former position.
Ny brother suggests that perhaps it is your desire that these females to whom you
are already spiritually betrothed might ]oin you in your mission? !f this is so, then it would
seem expedient that we bring them here to be with us now - in the flesh, so that they can
share with you in the briefing. !s it your wish?"
All three of the men nodded vigorously and said that it was indeed their wish.
Again there was another pause whilst all three Sages now leaned together in silent
communication. After a few moments, they separated and this time the first spokesman
of the three directed the men to go off to the side of the great audience-chamber and wait
whilst they performed the necessary ritual.
Once Drew and his companions were safely well out of the way, seated upon a large
cushioned divan, the Sages began to intone a monotonous chant accompanied by many
weird gesticulations, as if calling down the Great Spirit Himself to attend them.
At first nothing appeared to be happening, and Chas in particular began to feel
mildly sceptical about their ability to actually pull off such an incredible stunt. However,
for once, he managed to mask his feelings from the others, and contained himself in a
patient L!s WaI! An 5 frame of mind. But his views soon began to alter and his
scepticism to depart when a small cloud of smoky vapour began to form in front of the
dais. Slowly it began to revolve about an unseen axis , and the Sages chanting rose an
octave higher and several decibels louder. Now the revolving cloud had become as a
miniature tornado of some form of plasmic matter, and its accelerating spin was producing
an increasing, roaring sound.
The three men were forcibly reminded of their passage through ]ust such a mael-
strom on their way through the Earths crust, but this whirling vision was curiously con-
tained in some way. However, when they looked upward they found that the ceiling of the
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high dome had somehow disappeared from sight, and the whirlwind - if such it was -
seemed to stretch up into infinity! Then suddenly, Errol felt Drew clutch his arm in a
steely grip. He followed his gaze toward the base of the tornado. Something was hap-
pening within the heart of the swirling mass of cloudy ectoplasmic matter! Two faint
flickering figures could vaguely be discerned, wavering in and out of vision as if being
shown on an ancient faded silent movie screen. Slowly but surely, as they watched open-
mouthed, the two forms steadied and became more and more fully defined, until they
could be recognized. They were the physical forms of Narianne and Hazel ! Now, the
three Sages rose to their feet and raised their hands and their eyes upwards, chanting
together in loud voices.
As if in answer, the spiralling cloud slowed rapidly and dissipated away like a fading
mist until the space before the dais was entirely clear except for the two females. They
were both kneeling upon the carpeted floor in a trancelike state. Then the three sages
clapped their hands together in a single synchronized SLAP". At which, the girls starting
suddenly in shock, arose at once to their feet and gaped wildly around them in utter
astonishment.
The Sages now returned to normal, looked down upon them and greeted them in
English. Welcome to our house, daughters! You are now in the Sanctum of the great
temple of Shamballah!" and as the girls touched themselves and found that they were
truly still in the flesh and not merely in the spirit, the central spokesman Sage beckoned
forth the three men out of the deep shadows. Behold!" he cried. Here are those whom
you love! Relax and be at peace, for it is !n) who wished you to be brought here!"
Then for a few moments the Sages resumed their seats, whilst the two pairs of
lovers were reunited as complete entities. Chas was waved up to sit beside them to
witness the happy scene! For such it truly was! The two young women were completely
lost for words to express their emotions at this miraculous thing that had ]ust occurred to
them. But Drew and Errol quickly stifled their stammering lips with a shower of kisses.
However, as they clasped the girls to their chests, Drew cautioned Errol not to hug Hazel
too tightly. Dont forget youre Superman" now, old mate! Be a pity to bring the girls all
this way ]ust to crush them to death!"
Then, after the emotional greetings were over, and sense began to reassert itself,
they girls began to ask them how it had happened. Long story, love!" said Drew in reply
to Nariannes queries. !ll tell you all about that afterwards! Right now were here to
discuss our upcoming mission with the dear old gentlemen on the podium! But," he added,
"you dont have to worry about this being some kind of an illusion! You IaII) aI both
here, wI!n us, now, hon, D) an suI!"
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Errol was saying much the same sort of thing to Hazel, who appeared to be more
worried about Joan - with whom they had been en]oying a nice pot of afternoon tea and
hot buttered pumpkin scones!
Shell be worried steff, poor dear!" she said . Oill heve to go beck and till her as
soon es Oi can! Even ef uts only en the spirut!"
However, their chatter was brought to an abrupt halt when the third member of the
Trinity of Sages stepped forward and spoke up in a loud voice.
We trust that you are all happy now and are prepared to continue with the discus-
sion. However, it seems to us only fitting that the young women would prefer to be upon
an equivalent footing with their betrothed, if they are to ]oin us in this task that lies before
us? !s it not so?" The three men nodded but the girls looked puzzled.
Then he explained to Narianne and Hazel what had transpired earlier with the three
men in the acquisition of full vril empowerment. Upon hearing this they agreed at once,
and within minutes, they too were feeling like giants and brimming over with tremendous
euphoria, health and astonishing energy.
After this ceremony was competed. The Sages began the meeting in earnest, hav-
ing already displayed enormous patience and forbearance with their young charges. This
time it was the third of the Sages who continued this portion of the talk.
Now that we are all as equals, in spirit, power and mentation," he said, ! will not
fence with words any longer. !t is our avowed intent to bring the outer surface dwellers to
a clear and full comprehension of the danger they are in. And of the dangers they are
unwittingly placing all others who inhabit the Earth, who are far more than they could
possibly imagine!
We believe that the programs we have in mind - both in seabed cities and newly-
fashioned spaces within the crustal shell, can only be presented to them by their leaders.
And only then if those leaders are truly convinced of the merits of our vast scheme. True,
it will take many orbits to accomplish in its entirety, but we believe this scheme to be the
only one open to Outer Nan.
As we discussed at our last meeting, this vain concept of terraforming the planet
which you call Nars", will take far too long to complete, and the life-and-death crisis for all
humanity will already have come to a culmination long before that task is even halfway
ready! Your Outer World will by then have become a barren toxic desert, and none of its
life forms will be left to be salvaged. !t is imperative that we spread the word with all
possible speed. But not Haste! The word will need to be spread in an orderly, efficient
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but peaceful fashion if it is to be achieved at all!
We have all the requisite technology and trained personnel to carry out our scheme
in both areas, but we must also be certain that no dissenters are able to attack us or
disrupt our work in any way. We fully understand the suspicious nature of your people in
distrusting their politicians and their military chiefs. This is due to the fact that your
politicians believe that what their electors do not know will not worry them. !s this not so?"
he asked of the five people before him.
They all nodded sadly and gravely. !t was so! Conspiracy theories abounded about
political graft and cover-ups, and secret subterranean military bases in all corners of the
outer world. !t seemed to have become a way of life for most people to distrust and
despise their leaders and governments, who were basically regarded as financial oppor-
tunists and personal-power seekers. Not to mention the general belief that, when the
balloon finally went up, they would be the first to be whizzed away to safety. Drew
thought about this with greater clarity than ever before, as did his friends. Politics and
government to those in power were really all about en]oying comfortable lives, free from
all the woes that beset the poor fools they were supposed to be looking after, with nice fat
golden handshakes awaiting them whenever they decided to call it quits!
The whole practice of Democratic Government" had become a farce from begin-
ning to end. !f, in fact, it had vI been otherwise! !f one asked the members of
Parliament or the Senate, or the House of Representatives to adopt an aIIru1sI1c ap-
proach to their chosen va!Ins - which were allegedly Ia! ! Ing g /I !nII
un!I) an I!s ppI - and work for an ordinary avIag wIKmans pay - all Hell would
break loose!
!t would be even worse if one were to demand that those who had /aII to gain
government should go and find a regular ]ob and aIn their pay, until the next election
came around! !f they still wished to pps the incumbent government, as was their
right, then let them do it on their wn time, and at their wn expense!
!nstead, the public was also saddled with uDI government - one side charged
with the ]ob of governing, and the other bent upon hamstringing their ever effort to do so.
But, in addition to this primary imposition of a double /IaI government, vI) InI-
vIuaI s!a! had its own smaller IpIIa government! Each one equally double-sided,
avaricious and unproductive, and aII doing their damnedest to hamper the central govern-
ment, an aII /InanIaII) leeching on the communities they had vowed to serve! Who
really n politicians - apart from their cronies?
Apparently the Sages had been listening in carefully to these rebellious, anarchistic
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thoughts. Through their spokesman, they now underlined to the five some of the massive
problems they would be facing. Especially in trying to gain a nsnsus of governmental
views on this giant threat that hung over the world. !t seemed at first inspection to be an
impossible task - and it would certainly be so if !n) !nmsIvs attempted to present it in
person! The military would immediately be called in to dispose of them!
This was why only numan e1ngs could put the case, and only then, if they pos-
sessed I!aIn pIsuasIv pwIs with which to overwhelm the politicians senses of self-
interest and preservation! There was certainly no chance of achieving such a goal by
rallying the common people of the world themselves. This would result in civil war, and
the resultant bloodbath would be as bad as ]ust letting Nature take her fatal course!
No, it would have to be done by themselves first gaining great public acclamation and
respect. This was some thing that politicians of every shade and hue understood and
pined for. Politicians battened upon such popular legendary figures and heroes so a way
must be devised in which the five could win such worldwide acclaim. Once this was
achieved and acknowledged by the world community, then world leaders would stand in
line to invite them to their residences be seen conferring with them and be photographed
shaking their hands - be it the White House, the Kremlin, 10 Downing Street, or even the
Lodge in Canberra! Also they would be invited to talk upon the worlds Tv and radio news
channels, and have their thoughts and views printed in millions of newspapers and maga-
zines. But how could this acclaim best be won?
They would have to achieve something absolutely unique and outstanding in the
annals of recorded history and adventure -even what they had already done fell within
this classification. But they would require nI! an unnIaDI pI/ of their achieve-
ment!
Drew stood up. Forgive me if ! appear to be stating the obvious, your Reverences,"
he said, But why not let us do ]ust that? Take back proof of having entered the !nner
Earth? Or, failing that, perhaps of having visited some community deep within the crust?"
Ah, yes!" said the first of the sages who had addressed them on that previous
occasion. But did ! not mention at our last meeting that this would, in all likelihood,
attract the people or governments of Outer Earth to attempt to invade Edena? This would
be total anathema to us! However, your thinking is following along the right lines. Per-
haps if we were to send you to visit some nearby star-system which contains populated
worlds like ours? You could return with some piece of astounding technology that the
world could not ever have dreamt of?"
But Drew was still set upon his first idea. What if we were able to prove that we
had penetrated the !nner World here, but found it to be inimical to ordinary surface life-
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forms? There would certainly be n great rush to enter here then - and you yourselves
could render it so, should anyone else try! Let us say that you found us so unique that you
enabled us to dwell with you a while, in a specially-protected environment, whilst you
studied us and discussed this matter with us! Are we not in ]ust such a place as that, here
and now? Then we could tell them the rest as simple truth. That you had foreseen this
population and environmental catastrophe and had conceived a remedy which would
both save millions of lives an permit the Earth to regenerate itself?
All the clever and wise men of science in the Outer Earth are well aware that the
planet is already doomed, and would advise the governments to heed our warning and to
enlist your help." Then he grinned . Always provided that we could assure them that it
would all be done at no expense to themselves!"
At this, the Sages suddenly showed a new spark of interest in Drews idea, and went
into one of their inner-thought huddles together to discuss his suggestion.
The five sat in patient wonder and anticipation during this rather prolonged private
discussion. Drews fingers grasping those of Narianne who now sat beside him on the
round couch. Errol and Hazel held up their clasped hands to show that their fingers were
well and truly crossed for him. Chas gave him a quiet Thumbs-Up sign out of sight of the
Sages. !n any event, those great worthies were far too engrossed in their private mental
confabulation to notice any gestures or glances passing between their guests.
After something like half of a part-period of time, they finally straightened up. Their
faces betrayed no sign of approval or disapproval as they resumed their customary cross-
legged sitting posture. The Central Sage then cleared his throat and addressed them all.
We have carefully considered this amended plan of Drews, and we find that it has
considerable merit. But only if certain strict guidelines are strictly adhered to in the way
you explain it to the leaders and media of the Outer Surface world. We will not accept any
lying or untruths in any of your explanation. Therefore we will be accommodating your
physical bodies in ]ust such a chamber as you mentioned, Drew, and it will be here within
this very inner sanctum! All your physical needs and wants will be met and furnished
inside it, so that when the time comes, you will indeed be able to speak perfect truth that
such was your condition and protective detention whilst you were here!"
The faces of their five guests fell on hearing this, until he smiled and continued on,
saying: However, your spiritual, astral forms will still be able to ramble quite freely and at
will! And if you wish, we will even furnish you with IpIIa! flesh and blood bodies of
uI wn stature and appearance, in which you astral forms may move around and have
their being, and can mingle unquestioned with the citizens of Shamballah! By this means
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nothing need actually change for you either mentally or physically! However, the Truth
will, in this way, be preserved intact and can be passed on as such without the need for
lying."
He leaned forward, spreading his hands openly before them.
You must understand" he said, that with us, here in Agartha, TruIn is central and
essential to our entire way of life! So it must be seen to be factual! !f your bodies nav
Dn thus incarcerated during your stay with us, in a special environmentally-protected
chamber, will that not then be absolutely true and correct?"
He beamed at the all, and they in turn beamed back at the trio of Buddha-like
sages. !t was a wonderful solution!
Then, in conclusion of his little lecture, the Sage told them that such environmental
chambers a!uaII) xIs! in Shamballah, ]ust as they did in other regions of the !nner
World. They had been specifically designed for temporary visitors from other worlds to
whom the atmosphere of Edena was hostile. They remained in these until new, humanoid
bodies suited to Edena, could be replicated for them, and into which they were then
transferred as astral inner beings. !t was in this way that many of the extraterrestrial
beings from collapsing star-planet systems had been afforded permanent sanctuary within
the Earths otherwise alien environment
Finally, the second Sage now spoke up regarding what was to happen next. The
first thing he said, was that for the moment, whilst new arrangements were being made
for the installation of, and their accommodation in, the isolation chamber, they would be
free to relax for a few part-periods" or hours. However, once everything was in place,
they would be instantly recalled and incarcerated in the chamber. At that time their spirits
would also be given new Agarthian bodies to occupy so that only their normal bodies were
held within the chamber whilst they, as spirits, would remain free agents in a new physical
guise.
He reassured them that their new powers would remain undiminished, and that
they would need to be ever vigilant against any unthinking misuse of them. Within the
next few periods or so, they would be conducted upon a speedy tour of the intercrustal
states and cities, as had been promised at their first meeting. Avistar would remain their
guide throughout this tour, since the Sages seldom left their palace.
This concluded their meeting until such time as the chamber was ready. The middle
Sage now tinkled the little silver bell three times, and the great doors were opened and
Avistar returned smiling happily at seeing all five of his charges reunited in the flesh. The
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leading Sage beckoned him over and communed silently with him, head to head for a few
moments, then he sat back smiling as Avistar shook hands with each of the five - delight-
ing at the feeling of their new strength and vigour that he felt.
Then it was time to leave, and, following Avistars lead, they all bowed low before
their benefactors in deep honour and gratitude for what had been bestowed upon them.
Then the Trinity of Sages bowed to them in response - thanking each of them mentally for
their selfless preparedness to accept the great task ahead. Each of them was told to G
/I!n In gIa! )) an naI!n, an ma) !n GIa! CIa!Iv 5pIII! / aII !nIngs DIss aII / )uI
navuIs1
As the giant doors of the vast audience chamber at last closed behind them, Errol
could not help but give voice to the marvelous feeling of euphoria and strength that
literally sizzled and effervesced throughout every fibre of his being, and his shout was that
of them all. YAHOO! he yelled at the top of his voice, much to the astonishment of the
tall orange-robed attendants waiting to help them board their craft.
Even Avistar had difficulty in concealing his own great delight. For he, too, had
experienced that same sensation of overwhelming ]oy, power and invincibility after their
first meeting with the Sages. Which had been why they had held him back for a short
while, after the others had left the chamber! Now they were all ]oined together in both
status and power, as well as a common bond of purpose. Tn saIva!In / aII II/ upn !n
Ou!I 5uI/a / !n aI!n1
As their craft lifted off the landing-pad, Avistar told them that, instead of taking
them directly back to their luxurious lodgings, he wished to show them something he had
been unable to show them previously. But now they were among the initiated elite of
Shamballah, all doors were now open to them. He flew them to a gigantic building they
had seen once before, but which he had told them they could not enter being of the
uninitiated. !t was the great College of Sages, a vast university and the repository of all
Shamballahs greatest secrets and wisdom. !t was both a museum and a library as well as
a college, and its fabulous exhibits and tremendous collection of books" were the envy of
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all the !nner World - and probably of the Outer World too, had they but known of its
existence! No other state or region of Edena could boast such a magnificent treasurehouse
of knowledge and wisdom.
There was a landing-park upon a large flat section of the roof of the giant building
where other craft like their own were already parked in seried rows, each upon its own
pad. As they climbed down from the craft it occurred to drew that Avistar would have a
]ob finding it again, and mentioned this to him.
Ah! No!" said Avistar. We can aIwa)s find our own craft by simply wIsnIng it! See,
! will snw you!" He then led them away on a zig-zagging route among the many other
parked craft, until they had completely lost all idea of where they had left it. All the craft
looked exactly alike! No matter where they looked it was impossible to tell which was
theirs! !t was like looking for, not merely a needle, but a s!Iaw in a haystack!
Now," said Avistar, Drew, )u shall find it for us! All you have to do is ask clearly
and strongly within your mind Where is my craft?"!"
Drew stared at him. You mean ]ust like this?" he asked, screwing up his face in a
mighty effort of mental power, he thought: WHERE T5 mY CRAFT?
At once half of all the parked ships wobbled and shook upon their pads, at this
shattering call, but one in particular suddenly arose twenty feet into the air with bright
blue lights flashing and flickering non-stop all around its circular rim! Then it dropped
down almost falling off its pad as it landed. But the lights continued blinking and flickering
until Avistar intervened and stopped them with a flick of thought.
Hmmmm! Yes! 5m!nIng like that, Drew! he grinned, But not quite so clumsily,
please! You really must learn to use your powers vI) s/!I) until you are accustomed to
them! You could have blown up half the ships on this roof ! As it is, ! must remember to
do a quick check on the circuits of our own craft before we take off, in case you have
burned out some of its circuitry and crystals! But now let us get on! There is much to
see!"
So saying, he led the way into a raised boxlike portal of which there were several on
the roof. Doors slid back as he pressed his hand upon a panel beside the doorway, and
they all crowded inside assuming it to be some sort of elevator. However, the interior of
the portal was like a smallish square room panelled with crystal sheets, and there was an
engraved diagram on its rear wall. This was composed of many computer-like icons, of
which Avistar selected one by touching it lightly with his index finger. The doors then slid
shut. Then nothing seemed to happen at all except that the doors suddenly slid open
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again. And the found themselves in a lofty corridor which opened out upon a vast rectan-
gular chamber. !t was clearly one of many floors within the building and covered practi-
cally the entire area of it in length and breadth. On all sides were great windows which
afforded magnificent views of the cityscape surrounding the College. But the visitors saw
now that it was divided and partitioned off by translucent sections of crystal sheeting into
separate lofty halls and airy galleries, since each floor of the great structure was at least
thirty feet in height.
Avistar conducted them along to the first such gallery. !t was lined with shelves
from floor almost to ceiling each of which contained seried ranks of identical crystal
blocks, and every block containing thousands of fantastic holographic images of images of
every kind - like the amazing views of space he had shown them at their apartment - of
which he had said the source had contained many, many others!
Each of these `books" he told them," contains thousands of such images as you saw
in our apartment, and all of them can be accessed, through the power of VIII, by the
remote-control instruments that you can find in any house or apartment in the whole of
Agartha. !t is very like your own Outer Earth radio and television in that regard - except
that here you need no other power-source than the Vr1I, which of course requires no
wires or transistors or printed relay circuits. !t is something like your ether" in that it is a
type of carrier-medium for transmissions of many different kinds - including even !nugn!
itself - as you have already observed! The images sit here upon these shelves un-
touched whilst the mere thoughts of the viewer select and contact the images to be
viewed, of any sub]ect-matter imaginable
The VIII is then able to connect the pro]ected thought with the precise book that
contains the mentally selected image. !n this, it is quite unlike your Outer Earthly library,
where the reader has to take out the individual book dealing with the topic he seeks and
then actually read through its pages in order to find the information he or she is interested
in. Sometimes such as search required studying many books ! have seen such books,
not only here - although we have millions of specimens in special study-libraries of your
races actual books - but upon the Outer Surface itself.
As ! told to you on an earlier occasion, ! once lived upon the Outer Earth myself in
another incarnation, and the memories of my life there are still very clear! Thus ! know
very well of what ! speak, and can well understand how vastly different all this is to you.
Nany of the Sages themselves have lived upon the Outer Surface in past lives, and also
understand these things and the comparisons that you are bound to make! So you need
not fear appearing ignorant before us! We too have been through the same experience!"
He looked around their faces and saw that they understood his meaning. Errol
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asked if all the many galleries on this floor contained similar crystal books", and was
answered in the affirmative. There are actually four such floors, so ! leave to your
imaginings as to the amount of visual and sensory data that is stored here! And now let
us move on for there is much yet to see! Even so we will not have the time to see even
a fraction of all that is contained within this building! Let us go now!" he said. there is
something that you will be as!un to see on another floor!"
He then led them back to the portal and once they were inside and the doors closed,
he touched another icon-panel. This time the doors opened upon another entry vesti-
bule, but as they moved forward into the actual department itself they nearly collapsed
with shock! The entire floor was reminiscent of the NASA Control Centre at Houston,
Texas - except that it was on an infinitely more expansive scale! Ranks upon seried ranks
of television screens occupied enormously long benches running across the breadth of the
building, and before each of these receivers were ad]ustable seats. Nany of these were
already occupied by students seeking knowledge of what was transpiring upon the Outer
Surface, for all of the television screens were able to relay any signals from any transmit-
ters upon the Outer World !
Avistar invited them all to sit down and tune in to whatever stations they desired.
Tuning was achieved with great facility by first selecting a specific country and region from
an inset pro]ected colour-map of the worlds outer surface.
Fortunately this had been laid out in a pro]ection similar to that of Nercator, so it
wasnt hard to locate the country of choice. Then, by simply touching a cursor point upon
any ma]or area of population, a new screen sprang up showing all that areas transmission
centres, and so forth. Thus it was possible for Drew to touch upon
Brisbane, Australia and be offered a choice of a dozen or more local State and
National channels. He caught the tail end of a newscast in which some great political
turmoil was being enacted over some Government Rort" scandal in which he was happy
to note that one of the ministers on his most despised" list had been compelled to tender
his resignation from Parliament!
Another news channel showed a civil war in progress in the Niddle East, and he saw
part of a documentary that gave a grim pictorial account of a terrible outbreak of a dread
disease in an overcrowded region of Africa. He allowed himself to ]ump around from
country to country. Some were showing violent movies, other beautiful wildlife and na-
ture documentaries of lovely scenery and delightful animals gamboling upon grassland
plains or leaping around in the branches of beautifully vivid green ]ungle trees.
But by far the greatest emphasis of all the broadcasts he checked out was upon war
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and devastation, starvation and disease, and natural disasters caused by Nans own stupid
mismanagement of, or interference with Na!uI! !t seemed to be a constantly recurrent
theme in virtually anything he selected to watch! And if it wasnt those more obvious
results of Nans crass foolhardiness, it was reflected in the ridiculously trivial ideological
bickerings of the various political parties and their leading politicians, who all seemed to
be self-serving seekers after fame, wealth, and power, to a man! They neither cared
about nor helped those who had elected them.
!t struck him most forcibly what the people of Shamballah mus! conclude from these
chaotic and incomprehensible images of the Outer World. Seeing it here, in this far-
removed alien place of peace and harmony, made it all the more crystal clear to Drew
what complete blundering and self-centred imbeciles the Human Race must appear to
other civilizations!
He glanced around and saw the Errol too was looking very glumly at his screen. He
sensed Drews eye upon him, and glanced across with a look of utter disdain on his usually
cheery face. Then he pinched his nose between finger and thumb and reached up with
the other hand to pull down an imaginary lavatory chain!
Drew had to mentally endorse this sentiment - Nankind was very definitely On The
Nose!"- not to mention, he thought, rather indelicately, Up Crap Creek in a Barbed-Wire
Canoe!" Then he noticed Avistar staring at him in a rather pitying fashion shaking his
head almost imperceptibly from side to side. `Damn! Drew said to himself. `Hes been
reading every bloody thought! After their depressing though interesting visit to the
Earth Television and radio floor, Avistar took them to a totally different area, where hun-
dreds of magnificent-preserved humanoid bodies were on open show in long clear crystal-
glass cases. !t was as complete a catalogue as the explorers from Edena had been able to
assemble from their travels around not only the inner and outer Earth - and the interior of
its crustal shell - but from other planetary systems they had visited with the local galaxy.
Only humanoids were on exhibition here, though there was also another floor dedicated
to nonhuman extraterrestrials and their artifacts and weaponry. Each of the humanoid
exhibits was real, and had been freeze-dried completely, with all their inner organs intact,
and they all stood upon their feet as they would have appeared in actual life. There were,
of course, specimens of every racial type upon the outer crust, including some of the more
legendary hominids, such as yetis, bigfoots, and Australian yowies.
There were even giants who were nearly twice the height of the Edanans them-
selves at a towering 2+ -26 feet, as well as pygmies, dwarfs, and even tinier goblin-like
people and minute, fairylike folk! The range of the humanoid species was marvelous to
behold! Especially those from inside the Earths crust - the inner dwellers. Even the
reptilians and the so-called Gray" humanoids were represented. But drew was interested
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to note that the apelike primates such as gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and monkeys
were conspicuous by their absence, as also were the alleged reconstructions of the pre-
cursors of humanity proposed by the Leakeys, Darin, Huxley and others. There were no
evolutionary interstage hominids here, apart from those hominids which had paralleled
Homo Sapiens such as Homo Neanderthalensis and Australopithicus. These Avistar told
them were branches of humanity which had either been killed off by homo sapiens, or still
inhabited the inner crustal regions where they had been driven by him.
But the creatures which stunned them all were those that had been allegedly the
imaginary inhabitants of fairy-stories! The great ogreish giants, complete with huge
clubs, and the Tolkienish dwarfs and elves. The tiny, winged fairies and pixies would have
delighted Sir Arthur Conan Doyles heart, for he had been a devout believer in their exist-
ence, even though this belief had earned him enormous ridicule! And yet, here was his
]ustification, right before their eyes in actual snap-frozen flesh!
As to the off-planet hominids, there were surprisingly many who bore almost exact
similarities to those of the Earth, but there were others who had obviously had to accom-
modate quite different gravities and atmospheric gases and pressures. Such things were
evidenced in enormously developed rib-cages to contain huge lungs, or in their build and
stature, Long and spindly beings from low-gravity worlds, or short solidly-built, squat
dwarfish people from large worlds with high gravitation. Nost surprising were the flying
men, whose shoulder-blades had developed outward almost like handless arms and had
sprouted scales of elongated featherlike epidermis. But the huge long muscles required to
operate these powerful wings, anchored in front to great pro]ecting sternums or breast-
bones, made them far from angelic-looking! Their planet - or planets - must have pos-
sessed very dense atmospheres to permit this unusual form of specialization to occur. As
also must those of the !nI flying-men, who had developed bat-like flaps of leathery skin
that spread from their elongated finger-digits right down to ]oin into their bodies around
the hip-level. The middle portions of these pendulous flaps were also supported by pro-
truding cartilaginous elongations of the elbow ends of their humorus bones.
The five friends all shuddered mentally when they studied these particular speci-
mens, for they were virtually identical to those hideous reptilian creatures they had en-
countered inside the crust on their nightmare ]ourney down into the pit.. Avistar picking
up their thoughts and feelings of utter revulsion, said that these particular specimens had
been found upon several other solar systems. However, they had also infested Earth after
Nan had first been expelled from Edena, when the outer atmosphere was much denser.
Now they had been driven down closer to the gravitational belt inside the crust, where
there was still dense air to be found. But he perfectly understood and agreed with their
feelings of revulsion. After a tour of this intriguing floor, they suddenly had to cut their
visit short, as Avistar had ]ust received a private mental message that all was now ready in
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the Sages palace for the incarceration of their bodies within the isolation-chamber to
begin!
!t was with some misgivings and reservations that they went back up to the roof
craft-park, where Avistar permitted Drew to again try his hand at locating their ship. This
time he was almost too gentle about it, for the craft remained stationary and the blinking
lights around its perimeter were barely visible. Avistar, told him to focus ]ust a touch
more, and this time the craft arose about a yard above the rest and its lights were now
much more clearly visible.
Well, done, Drew!" said their mentor as they made their way toward the ship. Just
keep you mind focussed for a few moments more until we are closer to the craft."
Then, within moments, after they were all aboard it again, and Avistar had found
that Drews thought-blast hadnt in]ured its systems in any way, they took off for the
Sages palace.
Upon their arrival, the same emissaries were once more awaiting their arrival, and
conducted them straight away into the inner sanctum. The Sages were standing in the
middle of the thickly-carpeted floor as they entered, and after greeting them with a bow,
they waved toward one side of the chamber where a large spaceship-like craft sat parked.
!t was surprisingly large, for the five had rather expected something small and cramped
like a mpIssIn-namDI - the steel shipboard pressure-chamber used by deep-sea
divers to alleviate the agonies of the Bends" and permit bubbles of excess nitrogen to
escape from their bloodstream. But this was very roomy, and as they later discovered, it
was in fact, a spasnIp borrowed from another extraterrestrial community in Edena!
Through the large thick crystal ports of the ship, they were able to see the five couches
that they would shortly occupy, arranged in a row and already surrounded by the required
medical paraphernalia for keeping their bodies alive after the transfer had been com-
pleted.
Then they had a brief chat with their hosts, who assured them that all was prepared
and that their nw corporeal vessels" awaited them once their bodies had been cast into
a cataleptic trancelike state of total unconsciousness. !t would in fact be necessary for
their present bodies to be linked to biomechanical breathing and circulatory aid, since for
all intents and purposes they would be merely basic life-sustained corpses", during the
prolonged absence of their owners!
This way, they would not be Dun to return to their bodies at regular intervals, as
they had been compelled to do when they were merely sleeping, and their spirits astral-
travelling during their body-sleep. Their bodies would now be automatically fed intrave-
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nously, and the toxic fluid waste-products would be removed from their blood during the
artificial circulatory cycle. Some organs, like the kidneys and the alimentary system, for
example, would be flushed through with a special solution on a daily basis, in order to
keep them healthy and open. Thus they could leave their bodies behind In/InI!I), in
complete confidence that they would be preserved and maintained in excellent condition
during their excursion.
The Sage told them the surgeons would be here momentarily, and in the meantime,
perhaps they would like to view their new Agarthian bodies which lay already prepared to
be animated by their spirits? The spokesman waved a hand toward the opposite side of
the chamber where five couches had been placed and upon each of which there lay a
perfect specimen of Agarthian man or womanhood!
There were three male bodies and two females, each of them hooked up to a life-
sustaining apparatus, which maintained blood circulation and breathing, ]ust as those
within the spaceships central chamber would shortly be doing for their present Outer
Earth bodies. On a closer inspection - which the Sages invited them to make - each of
their new bodies, although considerably re-proportioned to Agarthian dimensions, still
bore their familiar likenesses. Considerable detail had gone into making the facial features
resemble those of their present faces, with the exception of the skin and hair colour, which
had now been made quite compatible with those of the general Agarthian populace.
Once transplanted into these new eight to ten-feet tall forms, they would blend in
ideally with the average Agarthian or Edenan, but they would still be able to instantly
recognize each other. The bodies themselves were quite superbly formed, with strong
athletic builds and totally devoid of any of those minor imperfections which help to make
normal Outer Surface people so individually different. Even though the faces were clearly
their own, even they had been improved upon and idealized to quite a respectable de-
gree.
Holy Smoke, buddy! Theyve turned us all into 11Im sIars!" Errol remarked to Drew.
Drew had to agree as he looked at his new form. Although this was still the face that had
once greeted him every morning in the bathroom mirror when he had a shave, it had
definitely taken a turn for the better! Nariannes face, however, since it had already been
perfection itself, had barely altered at all, nor had Hazels either. They both still looked ]ust
as lovely as before. The greatest shock of all, however, was reserved for the professor!
His new form, whilst still quite readily identifiable with the Chas they all knew and loved,
had now become a handsome Adonis, with more than a broad hint of Alexander the Great,
as an added free bonus extra!
When he saw his new body to be, Chas was ]ubilant. hoots, Non!" he cried. Yons
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pIIsI) hoo Ah looked twainty-years ago! But Ah must say, Ah dinna recall bein quI!
sae tall as that feller - nor sae bonnie curly-haired!"
At this point, whilst everyone was feeling ebullient and pleased with what had been
done for them. The great chamber doors swung open to admit the five surgeons who
were to perform the necessary procedures in transferring the five persons from their
current bodies over into their new forms.
The newcomers actually looked no different from the attendants and emissaries, in
either general demeanour or general appearance. The only mark of rank that distin-
guished them was their garb which was very much along the lines of Outer Earth sur-
geons, except they wore long white tunics with short sleeves, instead of the long flowing
robes of the others. They bowed deeply before the sages, then bowed their heads
toward their patients, more in acknowledgment than in obeisance. Then, without further
ado, the ships airlocks were opened up and they went inside to prepare for the task
ahead. After carefully checking that all their apparatus was in readiness, they then
beckoned the five friends inside the ships airlock. Here the two girls were asked to unrobe
themselves, during which embarrassing process, the three men carefully examined the
airlock wall as if scrutinizing it for any possible hairline cracks! Then the girls were taken
inside the ship proper, helped upon the furthest couches and covered modestly with pale
blue sheets. The men, meanwhile, had already disrobed themselves, so that when the
medics returned for them they were able to go directly inside. The girls looked the other
way, as naked, they took their places on the three remaining couches and were, in turn,
covered with pale green sheets.
What happened to pInK for girls and DIu for boys?" Errol asked Drew with a big
grin. Dunno, mate!" said Drew. Naybe theyre colour-blind around here!" then he
glanced across to his other side and found he had been placed next to Narianne. Chin
up, kiddo!" he said. Wont be long before were flexing those new muscles over on the
other side!" She smiled bravely back at him, concealing the trepidation she was feeling
about the whole business.
However, Chas at the other end of the row, sang out Ah hope ye mean the aither
side" o the namDI, laddie, and not the Aither Side o the Raiver Jourdan!" he said to
Drew with a grim chuckle.
Aw, m n nw, Prof!" said Errol, in mock-criticism. Youll have these poor medic
guys thinking that we dont trust èm, or something!" but if the doctors understood their
spoken words, they took no notice but went about their work in a competent, unhurried
way. After they had donned full facemasks of some transparent plastic-like substance,
they all washed their hands carefully in antiseptic solution. Then they began inserting
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intravenous cannulae and tubes into the veins of their patients wrists and ankles.
Surprisingly no one cried out in pain or fainted away, nor was there a single drop of
blood spilled during all five such operations. !t was all done without anesthetics of any
kind, yet none of the five felt anything. Drew suspected that the Sages had probably had
a hand in this somewhere - and he was probably right! At one stage in the proceedings,
he glanced up to see Avistars face at one of the large ports, watching the work with great
interest. He gave him a Thumbs-Up" sign with his free hand, only to have it gently
pushed back down by the physician attending him. However, Avistar grinned back and
gave him the same sign back.
At this stage it appeared that a critical point was about to be reached, as they all
heard the chief physician addressing them mentally.
Now, we are about to begin the transfer." He sad mentally. This will mean that in
a few moments we will have to leave this craft, and move over to your new bodies. The
Sages will perform the actual transference of your psyches, so you will gradually begin feel
a little dizzy and lose consciousness. But do not let this alarm you in any way, you will then
find yourself in a dreamlike place for a brief period, then you will begin to awaken again as
your spirits an souls return - but they will return to )uI nw DIs!
So do not feel alarmed or afraid if you find it a strange experience at first, your old
selves will soon settle into their new homes! We will be on hand beside you to supervise
your reawakening. Remember !nIs, all of you! N!nIng will go wrong! We have per-
formed this transference hundreds of times before without losing a single soul! Farewell
for the moment, friends! We will see you in a moment or two!" Then, he and his
colleagues bowed to their patients and headed for the airlock.
Yair, well! ! guess well ]ust have to take his w- wor - Uhuh!" began Drew in an
effort to cheer up his friends, but he suddenly felt completely woozy, and terribly drowsy,
too. Within seconds, they had all succumbed to some hypnotic drug that had been in-
]ected simultaneously into each of their tubes ]ust before the doctors left, and they fell
helplessly backwards down a deep black hole! At that precise moment, the apparatus
surrounding each of them suddenly began to operate and their breathing and heart pulsa-
tions were taken over by automatic machines.
!t was the weirdest sensation Drew had ever experienced. One moment he was
watching the physicians going out through the air-lock, and now here he was in a place
that resembled a kind of cotton-wool tunnel where there was no up or down, and he could
see his friends floating around with him. Suddenly there came a blinding glare of golden
light and he saw the three Sages beckoning them forward along this curious Alice-!n-
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Wonderland" passage which appeared to lack any kind of dimension - no width, no height,
no length! There isnt even any floor or walls - it - it its like being in a cloud! Yair! CIu
NIn - fellers! Gee, that lights bright! Nust be the sun! ! wish - Ah! Thats better! Nice
blue-green - my favourite colour. Hey! Now this is what ! call swImmIng! Straight up -
]ust like a dolphin! Knew a dolphin once - ! was a dolphin once! Hey! Here comes the
surface - get ready for some A!R! WHOOSH! Thats great now keep it up, mate! Breathe
away."
Breathe away!" said another voice. !t was inside his head! Breathe away, nice and
steady! Thats it! You are doing excellently Keep it up like that! Fine! Fine!"
Suddenly he could see that golden light again, but it was shining ever so dimly
through his eyelids, his eyelids, he struggled to open them but they seemed to be glued
shut. Then he felt something warm and moist dripping into his eyes, and - YES! He could
see again! Someone was shining a torch in his face - Hey! Put that bloody light out,
cobber! Youre blinding me!" He strove to raise is arms but they felt like they were made
of wood, however, he finally got the elbows and wrists to bend and he reached up to grab
at the torch . Then.5!n !n /IamIng CIws1 What happened to my nans? Those
aIn! m) fingers! He then saw his physician smiling down at him, holding his hand and
nodding happily. Then he saw Avistars face above him, also grinning delightedly. He
tried to grin back but his cheeks didnt seem to work right.. Ahhh! Thats better!
Then he suddenly became fully conscious and looked directly up at the vast curving
cupola that was the domed ceiling of the Sages inner sanctum. !t all came back to him
then. He had gotten through to the !nI sI1 To !n oIner ody! He tried to sit up
then, but all of his body seemed to be paralysed or locked up in some way.. 5I111! That
was it. he felt stiff all over like an Egyptian mummy wrapped in its bandages! Waking up
after three thousand years! He laughed at the idea.
Then he felt two pairs of hands around his back and shoulders lifting him into a
sitting position. That felt a whole lot better! Only now he had pIns an nIs every-
where! He hazard an attempt at turning his head to look around - and it nearly fell off!
Oucn! Then he tried again very carefully, and this time he saw Errol beside him - only
this was some bloody nug gu) with Errols /a! He looked to be in as much pain as
himself! He turned his head the other way, and saw Nariannes face smiling back at him
- but she was a big giant lady, too! WOWl Whatever these quacks had tripped them out
on, he definitely didnt want an!nI dose!
Now, however, they were all at least safely transferred, even though some of the
groans were pitiful to hear - especially from Chas, who had been the last revive in his new
body. Drew guessed it was to do with his age, being on the wrong side of forty. He heard
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Hazel requesting the professor to Put a sock in ut - For the Love uf Noike!" as she was
going through her own private hell. This seemed to indicate that the depth of a person
spirituality might have something to do with also, since Narianne appeared to have come
through the entire experience without any hassle at all. Hazel, had learned well from
Narianne, but she still had her moments. Yet Chas had perhaps turned out to be quite a
surprise being a closet-Christian all this time!
Before he could figure it all out, the three Sages came around to see each of them
- rather like a bunch of specialists, Drew thought, visiting yesterdays operation sub]ects
on Ward rounds. However, thankfully, it turned out to be something more than simple
clinical interest, as after they had first talked with Narianne and found her in excellent
shape, they next called upon himself. They read his mind fairly closely but it was not his
rambling thoughts they were interested in so much as his pain. Upon discovering that he
was still in considerable discomfort, they did their Laying-on-of-Hands ritual on top if his
head and he immediately began to feel his discomfort and pain dissipating .
By the time they had reach Chas, Drew was feeling fit for anything and was already
dangling his long new legs over the side of his couch. Errol too had by then risen to a
sitting posture and was studying his new hands and arms in blank astonishment. Soon
Chas also was sitting up and beaming around at the others, with his new youthful smile,
from under his new fringe of shining curly white locks. Drew was the first to rise to his
feet, and when he realized his great height - a full !n /! sIx - he felt a mild twinge of
acrophobia flash across his senses.
A man wouldnt want to fall over to often from !nIs bloody height!" he thought wryly
to himself.
Errol experienced exactly the same sensation when he too, essayed an upright
stance, and almost succumbed to a dizzy spell. He grinned across at Drew, clutching at his
drip-stand for support. Guess ! shot my head up a mite faster than the blood could
follow!" he quipped. "Now ! know how a giraffe feels when it gets out of bed too sud-
denly!"
But the honours went to Narianne, who had by this time walked the full length of
the chamber and back again without a hint of a stagger. She looked like the Queen of
Sheba, draped in her blue sheet and with her platinum blond tresses falling about he
shoulders! She was a full eight feet nine inches, give or take, and she looked like a top-
class fashion model to Drew. He walk out from between the couches to meet her and
placed his arm around her shoulders, for despite her new height she still looked small
beside him. Avistar now walked across the floor and took them both across to the space-
craft which Drew had already Named Tn 1In Lung!
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!t was with some trepidation that they crouched low to peer inside, and both Drew
and Narianne found it quite a shock to the system to see ones body lying in something
extremely close to death, with tubes and pipes pumping blood and air in and out of ones
near-corpse! Then it occurred to Drew that they might probably have to go through this
entire process all over again - In IvIs - when the time came for them to set forth upon
their final mission. !t was quite a harrowing thought, so he asked Avistar about it. What
form wuI they need to be in when the time came? Their old Outer Surface selves, or
their present new Agarthian selves?
This question caused Avistar to pause and reflect. !n fact he reflected for so long
that Drew felt that he had perhaps flashed an urgent covert query to the Sages. Eventu-
ally Avistar replied, without much conviction, that this particular matter hadnt yet been
resolved, and that hed find out more from the sages when they had finally decided.
However, from his own viewpoint, it would seem more effective if they appeared in their
normal Outer Earth forms - otherwise the rulers of the nations would assume them to be
some form of aliens, and thus the whole exercise would be worthless.
No. He felt that, unfortunately, this would probably be the way the Sages would
prefer it. He sympathized with their probable need to repeat the soulish transition all over
again, but it would most certainly be easier the second time, since they were already well
accustomed to their original bodies. Drew sighed at the unpleasant prospect, but he
could see how it would appear to the US President, for example, to be faced with five
towering entities apparently masquIaIng as numans wn na unIgn D)-swaps,
advising him to let them build cities for his people beneath the ocean, whilst they regen-
erated the Earths surface and atmosphere! 1n a pIgs ), Du)1 would be the auto-
matic response, followed by a very quick trip under armed escort to Area 51, or wherever
they interrogated aliens!
Sadly, it looked like Avistars guess - I/ sun I! was - made sense. They would have
to be sn to be IaI, /aII-InKum, In!I/IaDI aI!n ppI representing five Surface
nations, if they were to convince anyone at all! However, they wI to be granted some
special powers of persuasion from what the Sages had hinted, and probably not ]ust the
right nn) wIs either! No doubt their now almost innate VIII power would play an
important part in the persuasion-process!
Still, this was all something theyd have to find out when the Big Day arrived! He
guessed they all felt the same as himself - a tad like III must have felt in that sci-fi movie
Cn!a!, when she was being strapped into that gigantic WnIs-wI!nIn-WnIs cyclo-
tron-machine to go visit the Star People! Narianne had been reading his thoughts and
hugged his arm comfortingly. So had vI)n Is, too. it appeared, ]udging by the
funny looks he was getting from all around the chamber!
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5orry, peopIe! Drew boomed mentally at them all. Just thinking out loud!"
The spokesman Sage answered him. There is no need to apologize, my son! We
understand your need to reason this matter out with yourself, in order to nvIn your-
self! Otherwise you would not be numan, and therefore would be of no help to our
scheme! However, as we told you at our first meeting - /aI n! - you wIII be empowered
In aII !n wa)s IquII to bring home our message to the leaders of the Outer nations.
And ! can tell you here and now that )u wIII prevail! As you have so correctly guessed,
the vril power you all carry will make your arguments totally irrefutable. You have only to
convince the ma]or powers and the rest will nav to follow their example, even if only from
a financial dependence point of view! As you must surely understand by now, there are
easier and better ways to coerce or sub]ugate lesser powers than by making war upon
them!
Now," he said let us ad]ourn this meeting. We will advise you via Avistar when we
have made the arrangements for you to visit the intercrustal worlds we discussed. The
diplomatic aspects are all but completed, but you will have a few periods more to tour our
land before Avistar takes you on this first ]ourney. Then, when !na! is completed, your
main mission will begin upon the Outer Earth! So relax whilst you can, and en]oy the
wonders this world still has to show you!"
Soon they were all back in the lodging apartment again, and Chas, under Avistars
expert tuition, was learning rapidly how to operate the hologram pro]ection program with
the aid of the crystal remote control and his own mental direction. The speed of his
progress in mastering this was greatly enhanced by the possession of a far younger and
infinitely more receptive brain.
The new brain had come with the rest of his new Agarthian body, a marvel of !nner
Earth biotechnology - a science as yet still at a very infantile stage in its development on
the Outer Surface. But, nonetheless, it was still directed by his own original mind, soul
and spirit. These were the Creator's own private bailiwick, and could never be dupli-
cated by Nankinds piffling and blundering efforts at Creation. Chass new intellect and
brainpower, as well as his great spiritual strength was certainly enhanced even more
greatly by the almost limitless VIII power he was now able to tap into. But he now had to
attempt to permit his mind a much freer rein, which was no easy undertaking for one who
had been so deeply indoctrinated into establishment patterns of thought.
!t was here that his stubborn Scottish pig-headedness and obtusety for once stood
him in good stead. For Drew had made a rather stupid, snide remark earlier on their way
back from the Sages Palace. Something to the effect that despite Chass new and younger
look (/ wnIn n was InIIna!I) pIu}, he still had a pI/ssIs mIn inside it, and it
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was still naI ! !an an I g nw !IIKs1 Chas had bridled at this inane suggestion,
and had resolved to !an a nK) )ung wnIp a !IIK I !w by outdoing him at a few
hi-tech things. And he was proving this convincingly, too!
Drew had picked up the remote and ]okingly said to Errol that he wondered what
was n Tn Bx today? He had then proved his thick-headed arrogance by being totally
incapable of con]uring up a single image - even after Avistar attempted to help him.
Chas recalled well Drews reluctance as a student to be instructed! He closely watched
how others did things, then immediately set out to explain to his friends how they were
done. Drew still tended to do this with Errol, who, in Chass opinion. Was himself only too
happy to let others do his thinking for him However, Chas had to admit that despite his
human failings, Drew was definitely a born Ieader, ]ust as Errol was a born I1euIenanI.
Together, they made a fine team, and Chas had no quarrel with that. !t was because of
these qualities, and their indubitable courage and resourcefulness that Chas had perse-
vered with them. Even when faced with their shared, facile ability to IaIn wI!nu! IaII)
!I)Ing, and the smug arrogance that went hand in hand with that lucky gift!
However, Drew had finally tossed the remote aside in disgust. He ]ust couldnt be
bothered wasting his time learning how to coordinate hand and mind. Chas saw this as
an opportunity to outshine him for once!
He had picked it up and immediately managed to bring back one of the scenes
Avistar had shown them earlier. Avistar was delighted at this and showed Chas how to
think of a scene or event he wished to witness and then channel his mental wish. This was
done via the remote, to the general topic or theme, then its general location in time and
space, and finally bring up the detailed scene itself as he wished mentally to witness it. He
showed him how to make minor changes to the scene, such as shifting his viewpoint,
zooming in or out on any part of it, and even the trick of fast-forwarding or fast-reversing"
the same scene by years, centuries or millennia. Chas had then discovered that, since his
renewal" hed suddenly become a very fast-study", and had been able to pick up the
basic principles of the system in nothing flat!
Drew and Errol were flabbergasted at their old professors new learning-speed, and
of course, they then beseeched Avistar to show them, too!
!t was now Chass turn to sit back smugly with the two girls - who had watched all
this fine show of male ego and chauvinistic competition with growing amusement. Hazel
summed it up as she watched the two nw-gnuIn young giants" pitting their wits
against each other in an all-out effort to put Chas in the shade. The bigger they are, the
harder they fall - /I I!!" she said, grinning slyly.
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However, it was one of those skills for which Chas had a natural flair, and even
Avistar was amazed at some of the magnificent holographic images he was soon able to
produce. One of his especial favourite themes was the Jurassic Period on the Outer Sur-
face, and he was able to present some spectacular ferocious battles between the giant
saurians. He also had the mental craft of a top Hollywood epic-movie cameraman in the
way he was eventually able to manipulate the spectators viewpoint as being that of some-
one dodging in and out, between and around the thrashing and lunging reptilian giants,
like the referee in a boxing-match!
!t soon became his favourite pastime, and the longer he practised at it, the better
and more accomplished he became. Soon, Avistar was inviting leading Agarthian scholars
to come over and watch Chass spectacular and immaculately-presented shows.
However, Drew and Errol had also prevailed upon Avistar to spare them some time
and show them - as he had promised - how to fly the spacecraft. So his time was soon
very much spoken for. When he wasnt watching Chas creating new additions to his
rapidly-growing library of holographic displays from the College Librarys endless supply of
raw data, he was flashing in and out around the citys great buildings in the spacecraft,
with either Drew or Errol at the controls.
!t was a hair-raising experience, even for the almost imperturbable Avistar, as both
of them tended to be brash and impatient pupils. Errol in particular, because of his past
experience with planes and helicopters. He found it hard to make the transition between
the difference in flying characteristics of the saucer-like negative gravity-buoyed craft of
Agartha and the winged airborne craft of his homeworld. Had Avistar not been such an
expert pilot himself they could have destroyed themselves and their craft on several scores
of occasions, if he hadnt foreseen their blunders beforehand and seized the mental helm
in the nick of time.
Fortunately, they eventually learned to exercise a lot more mental caution and con-
trol and to sacrifice speed for safety instead. Before long, under his patient tuition, they
both became quite passably fair if not brilliant pilots, and he then surprised them one
day" by having another craft delivered to their balcony-pad, for their own personal use.
From then on for they went off ]oyriding with the girls all across the length and breadth of
Agartha and its surrounding neighbours. !t was a wonderfully liberating sensation for
them all to be free to come and go at will. No one challenged them if they crossed the
bounds of Agartha into another state, since they had now accommodated their minds and
their reactions to others as if they had been born in Edena. They now looked exactly the
same as most other Edenans and they had learned at long last, the craft of masking their
inner thoughts from others, except from their intimate friends and colleagues. Thus they
continued to en]oy all the delights of the !nner Earth at their own leisure and ease.
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However, the day was drawing ever closer when they would once more be recalled
to the Palace of the Sages for their final briefing and the dreaded return into their own
bodies again. They had now become completely used to being semi-immortal giants,
and it was going to make the wrench of their transition back into Outer World human form
even harder to bear.
But that day had not yet arrived, and they continued with their often quite distant
excursions and adventures. And adventures they en]oyed aplenty, although a few were
somewhat less en]oyable than others.
One in particular was especially hair-raising. They were cruising along generally
admiring the view and the girls were looking out for wildlife. This meant that they had to
fly fairly low above the ground in order to see between the luxuriant almost tropical ]ungle
of vegetation below. This was a part of the !nner Earth that had been allocated as a
sanctuary for some of the extraterrestrial life-forms rescued from a dying system far out
across the galaxy. !t was as they crossed over an open clearing in the dense canopy of tall
trees below that they spotted the sudden glint of silver sparkling in the light of the central
sun. !nquisitively they paused the ship and descended lower over the clearing for a
closer look. What they saw was quite a nasty surprise, for they found themselves looking
down up a larger craft than their own, and of a much more classical flying-saucer"
appearance. But it was the creatures who were working around and upon the craft that
attracted their attention most. They were classic examples of the dreaded Grays" they
had heard so much about, not only up on their own surface, but even down here in Edena.
The race with whom Naxos had had dealings and who were now working hand in glove
with the reptilians!
There was no mistaking those oft-depicted characteristics they had all seen so of-
ten. The pale blue gray-skin, the frail, almost childish, body-shape, the large-domed
hairless craniums and the large ]et-black eyes, set in thin, pointy-chinned faces. Expres-
sionless faces that lacked real noses and had only thin slits for mouths.
They appeared to be transferring supplies of some kind from the craft into the
mouth of a large dark cave or tunnel, and it was obvious that the supplies were being
passed directly to other creatures who remained within the gloom darkness of the tunnels
entrance, clearly shunning the sunlight. Drew silently lowered their craft inch by inch
further over the unsuspecting heads of the preoccupied Grays, until they were able to gain
a glimpse into the shadowy tunnel mouth.
At once they all recoiled in shock as they recognized the hitherto hidden figures
within as the familiar forms of their arch-enemies - the repI1I1ans! They were identical
in every respect to those they had first encountered so long before in that gloomy magma-
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chamber deep beneath Undara! But, as they spotted the reptilians, the reptilians also
spotted them, and urgently alerted the Grays, who swung around squinting painfully up at
the intruding craft. !t was plain that they were engaged upon some nefarious smuggling,
for the scene below suddenly became one of frantic activity. Errol was the first spot the
weapons being produced from within the flying-saucer ship, and before Drew could react
several shots impacted upon the base of their own craft.
One of these must have been a lucky shot, for the negative-gravitation field sud-
denly began to fail, and they found themselves descending rapidly right on top of the
saucer. The impact gave both ships quite a ]olt, but it had obviously harmed the alien
vessel far more that their own, as they all felt the distinct crumpling of metal beneath
them. At the same time, whatever had been dislodged or loosened by the shot to their
own ships underside must have been rectified by the collision, for their craft began sud-
denly to rise up again!
As they rose however, the Grays again began to blast away at their ship, and it was
then that a curious association of ideas flashed across Errols agile mind. This was all very
reminiscent of a trilogy of Space Opera" movies hed seen as a boy. He turned to Drew
and Chas and cried Tn Force1 Us !n Force o1 Vr1I, gu)s1
Drew realized instantly what Errol meant as did the girls, and they turned all the
mighty VIII power of their minds fiercely upon their attackers - ]ust has Narianne and
Hazel had done in their astral forms as Warring Angels against the reptilians, way back
there in the inky darkness during that awful underground ]ourney! The result now
however was infinitely more devastating than on that other occasion! The girls had used
the Power of Light against the demonic reptilians, but the power of VIII now loosed as a
wapn / a!!aK, was at least a hundred times greater in its destructive effect! This vril
power was most surely a double-edged dangerous power to possess!
!n the right hands it was a wonderfully constructive, restorative and healing bless-
ing, but in the wrong hands it could equally well become a terrifying weapon of mass
destruction. The proofs of its deadliness now lay smouldering beneath them. The alien
ship had been reduced to a seething, molten mass of useless metal, whilst is erstwhile
crew of Grays were mere piles of whitish ash, already scattering upon the light breeze that
swirled constantly across the surface of Edena. Nany of the reptilians inside the tunnel-
mouth had been burned to crisps or were now tottering or crawling away down their
tunnels permanently crippled. !t was an appalling sight and a salutary lesson to the five
adventurers in keeping a firm rein on this aspect of their fearsome power. Then they
took their craft to the other end of the clearing, and, whilst Errol kept it hovering a few
feet above the mauve-green grassy sward, Drew ]umped down and closely inspected its
underside. But they were very lucky. Apart from some flash-burns across the circular
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base there were no signs of any penetration of the crafts smooth integument. Then they
turned their craft around and headed for Shamballah and home.
Avistar was interested but not entirely astonished at their news. There were many
reports, he said, of Gray" craft sneaking in through some of the less-frequented portals to
bring in contraband supplies of weaponry and food from their secret bases on the Noon
and elsewhere to their new masters the reptilians. He feared that it might not be long
before they attempted a mass invasion of Edena. However, he had far more pressing
news. He had heard only an hour or so earlier from the Sages that all was now arranged,
and they were to set forth upon their brief tour of the intercrustal cities and communities
forthwith. After that, they would be restored to their normal human forms and sent up to
the Outer Surface to carry out their Nission!
By evening time" - for they were still keeping to Earth surface-time - they pre-
pared to retire in full expectation of travelling to their first destination early on the follow-
ing "morning" by means of their spacecraft, but Avistar had a surprise for them all. They
were to do all of their whirlwind tour upon the astral plane! !t was the most efficient way
of doing so, and since it now lay within the power of them all to do so, they would simply
don suitable outer shells or carapaces to blend in with their hosts. The Sages had already
arranged a travel itinerary for them with the places the were to visit, and he now told them
why this tour was so necessary for them to make.
They would gain invaluable insight into how entire miniature worlds were able to
exist in completely self-sustained environments entirely separated from the surface and
the sunlight. Nany of the worlds they would see were in fact far better off, considerably
healthier and much more comfortable in general, living entirely subterranean lives! He
realized that this might sound incredible, especially to people such as themselves who had
experienced nothing but horror, trial and tribulation in battling their way through from the
outer surface to the inner one, but nevertheless it was true. As they would soon be
seeing for themselves!
Before they retired, he told them that as soon as their bodies were deeply asleep
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their astral forms were to foregather in the apartment, so that they could set forth in a
body under his direction.. They had nothing to fear during this tour, since their VIII pwI
would still be an integral part of their spiritual makeup. Therefore it would go ill indeed
with any entities of Darkness who attempted to harass them or in any way interfere with
their progress. To help with this group coordination, he gathered them together and
performed a small but effective ritual over them, thus ensuring that they would all fall
asleep together and emerge upon the astral at he same point in space-time. Then they
all retired, including Avistar himself.
Boy!" thought Errol as he fell into his sleeping-couch. this is sure gonna be some
swI/! trip! ! seldom sleep longer than seven hours, tops!" Then, to his surprise, Avistars
voice spoke firmly if softly inside his head and told him to shut up mentating and get off to
sleep - he was keeping the others awake! The professors mental voice then chimed in
and said conversationally: Aye! Ahll bluidy second that, Avistair! Yon Airrol was aiver a
grand talker - even during mah laictures in the Univairsity!"
But, alas, he too was told politely to PIp Dwn1 - though not in such pithy words
- whereupon everyone fall into a deep slumber with smiles upon their faces! A few
moments later they were all hovering together in their newly-favoured forms as giant
warriors above the balcony outside their lodgings.
At the speed of thought, they arrowed away, automatically following Avistars unerr-
ing lead. Within a few seconds they were visually rematerializing in a vast and brilliantly-
illuminated cavern deep beneath the Himalayas mountain range in the Earths outer
section of crust. This was an astonishing place, totally unlike anything they had seen
before. The cavern was so vast that they had some appreciable difficulty in discerning the
fact at first - until their eyes had grown accustomed to the brilliant light which pervaded
the pleasantly brisk and fresh air of the place.
Avistar, with obvious delight, hovered over a large and beautiful city with his hands
spread out expansively.
Welcome my friends," he cried in his strong astral voice, to Shamballah the Lesser!
This is the city upon whose ancient foundations one of Earths greatest philosophies was
founded. ! speak of that which you know as Tibetan Buddhism! The most gentle,
peaceable and harmless of all Earths many religious philosophies!
What you see spread out below and before you is the first attempt by ourselves
part to create an Outer Earthly counterpart or mission of our own central Shamballah the
Great! !t was intended to be a focus of envangelization to the ideology of the true nature
of the Universes, and our beliefs in their being the products of the Nind of the Great
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Creator Spirit. However, these beliefs have been somewhat changed over the millennia
by the rulers of this place, so that they no longer quite accurately reflect those of our own
!nner Earth beliefs.
First there came the false religion of Bn P which was not that which we had
promoted, but a shamanistic and animistic, nature worshipping cult - which, alas, also
required the acceptance of many evil spirits as well as good. This faith was presided over
by a false deity who declared himself the King of the World". Sadly there is one who calls
himself the PIIn of This World" and his name is Satan!
Thankfully, however, after a great deal of upheaval, Shamballah eventually em-
braced the Buddhist faith of the East, which incorporated many of our own beliefs. For
awhile, the two beliefs became fused together, and whilst Bon Po was gradually replaced
by Buddhism, much of the Tantric Buddhism became infected with Bon Po, and this is why
so many images of evil gods found their way into Buddhist temples . Eventually Bon Po
disappeared from Shamballah and it became the home of Tibetan Buddhism, which is
now Lamaism. A very close parallel to our original inner world ideology. And so we con-
tinue to support and encourage them in their renewed belief and culture, which ! under-
stand has now spread far and wide even into your own Western cultures. !s it not so?"
Drew pointed out to Avistar that many Western people now practiced the rituals of
the Tibetans and the in meditation, the acceptance of reincarnation of the soul, and the
pursuit of inner peace - even whilst still also following the faith of Judeo-Christianity, and
the vedic-Hindu mystic rituals of Tantra. He said that the outer world was pretty mixed-up
in terms of religion and ideology.
Avistar had to agree with him. Why cannot all mankind simply accept the fact that
all of that which we see about us in our own universe - and in all of the other universes
that exist upon other levels of space-time continua simultaneously with our own - are the
result of the same vast original design? That they were all conceived and created by a
single unimaginable !ntellect, purely for his Own diversion and pleasure?. Therefore, all
these separate religions and cults, which mean nothing in themselves, have a grasp,
however faint, of the Ultimate Truth of the overall creation!
!t is a great pity that they cannot reduce their complicated and often burdensome
religious creeds to a simple acceptance of that one supreme Great Spirit Entity as the Lord
of them all. !t is all this foolish claptrap of differing creeds and dogmas, festooned with all
the pomp and panoply of your great religious organizations, that is bringing about the
victory of evil over your world, and thus its destruction. ! will have more to say of this at
our next stopping-place. However, let us turn our attention to the most important reason
why we are here. The great city and how it is sustained!"
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With that, he swooped down at a dizzying speed with the others following him, until
he came to a halt above a large plaza in the heart of Shamballah the Lesser.
Before them were many wonderful buildings and boulevards lined with blossoming
trees, along which the inhabitants strolled happily. Nostly the people appeared much of
an age - somewhere in their mid-thirties, and the most notable feature among them was
the absence of young children, the aged and decrepit, or the sick and crippled, that are so
much a part of any normal citys population.
Chas asked Avistar where all the youngsters and elderly folk had gone. ! expaict
theyll a be in school, or mebbe in auld folks hames, nae doobt?" he queried. But Avistar
surprised them all when he said that there were no children at the present time, and that
the I /IK Chas had spoken of were right there before their eyes! This mystified them
all. So Avistar then had to explain to them that the people of Shamballah had learned long
ago the practice of eugenics and population-control. Public health was maintained at such
a high level, that even the ageing process had almost been arrested, thus maintaining an
almost static population. This had been offset by a corresponding almost zero-population
growth, thanks to the entirely voluntary contraceptive care taken by the citizenry of Sham-
ballah the Lesser. Thus new offspring were only conceived after the natural death of an
elder citizen, or the accidental death of a younger one.
Nost of the people lived for up to two or three centuries, due to their almost com-
pletely-protected environment from cosmic and solar radiation and the beneficial effects
of an excellently balanced diet. So death only supervened when bodily organs finally wore
out and failed. No efforts were made to replace such failing organs and people were
permitted to die with dignity at their appointed times. !n any case, since they all believed
in the reincarnation of the soul, it was regarded as being of vital importance that their
ordained cycle of life following life be maintained without medical interference. Avistar
stressed that he had said AImosI mpI!I) pI!! nvIInmn! because even at
this depth below the surface, some cosmic radiation still penetrated their cavern world,
and it was this that caused a steady accumulation of damage to vital organs. However, it
was far better than living upon the outer surface, where, as they already knew, the aver-
age life-span was curtailed to around a mere seventy-five or so orbits.
As to the light and power of this and many other of the crustal cavern worlds. This
was due to the same benevolent radiations of certain powerful crystals as it was in the
!nner Earth - and also to the aural radiations that emanated naturally from the bodies and
spirits of all the citys healthy and vigorous people, animals and vegetation. Psychic power
was what operated all mechanisms and other utilities.
True, the VIII power was possessed by some communities, but many shunned its
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use since there was a tendency among some to employ it for wrongful, evil purposes, as
had anciently been the case among several of the Outer worlds ancient surface nations.
Thus, after almost destroying their planet by its negative overuse as a weapon of war and
destruction, and therefore being driven to seek their abode underground, many people
had outlawed vril as being too dangerous to handle. However, its positive power was still
employed by a few of the more sensible and trustworthy subterranean dwellers. As they
would eventually see.
Being in spiritual form, they were unable to communicate with the citizens here.
The Lesser Shamballahans were generally not as telepathically omniscient as their inner
world Greater Shamballahan counterparts. However, they were seen" and stared at"
occasionally by a few of the elder citizens who had developed some fair measure of astral
strength. This was what was meant, in Lamaist terms, as seeing with the Third Eye", and
this was a spiritual attainment much sought after by the general citizenry. !t was believed
to be a natural gift given to all mammals, but the Third Eye" had become almost atro-
phied in most humans now, and it required much instruction and ritual initiation to open
it up. !t was connected with the pineal gland - a knob of specialized cells in the upper
forebrain. A lump of tissue that was regarded as a functionless" enigma by most Outer
Earth medical scientists and neurologists.
However, here Hazel put in a word or two, to the effect that the pineal gland was
also particularly noticeable in the !ua!aIa lizard of New Zealand, which was not a true
lizard, but a direct descendant of the dinosaur, Rhynchocephalia. !t was !nugn! to serve
the purpose of detecting sunlight at the right intensity to be of warming value to the
animal, although there was no proof this was !IuI) its actual original function.
Drew said that it was probably a highly-developed pineal gland that caused the large
bulging head in dolphins and all the other telepathic cetacea. Until Errol butted in and
said that he thought it was caused by the ceteaceans inbuilt sonar-domes".
Avistar wisely decided that they should perhaps drop the sub]ect and move on.
But before they did so, he drew their attention to the excellent atmosphere of the
great cavern. He pointed out the great caverns plentiful trees and plants, which thrived
well on its crystalline light radiation, and the large part they played in maintaining its
freshness. They inspired the CO2 exhaled by the humans - and other animal life, of which
there was an abundance - replacing it by pumping out oxygen. Also it had an excellent
fresh-water supply, which had been thoroughly filtered as it seeped down through miles
of rock from the Himalayan snow and ice caps! They took a last glance around the
wonderful cave, and at all its plentiful bird life that flitted and swooped all around its vast
highly-domed roof, filling the air with their beautiful paeans of sweet song. Then the six
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shot away instantly to their second port of call.
Their next stop was an unusual one, part of the cavern empire of Agharti, beneath
the central desert lands of Asia and Nongolia. Here the scene was somewhat similar,
again with the lighting seeming to emanate from the walls of its buildings. Here they
found that the cavern, though not half so high as the last, was a very long one with vast
hydroponic gardens stretching away for at least a mile or so along its great length. The
great trough-like tanks containing the hydroponic nutrients, glowed with a strange green-
ish light of their own. Above them stretched long rows of crystalline rods that shone
brilliantly down upon the plants set into the troughs.
The marvelous efficiency of this system was self-evident in the wondrous fruits and
vegetables they could see hanging from, or growing beneath the luxuriantly leaved plants.
There were tomatoes, potato-plants, carrots and a wide variety of root vegetables all
growing out in the open troughs without soil. They also saw melons and trained stone-
fruit shrubs and bushes, as well as berried plants and briars. There were other familiar
fruit trees such as apples, pears and pomegranates. As well, there were also citrus trees
such as lemons, oranges, kumquats and grapefruit, all of giant size but all neatly espaliered
or trained along wires.
Whole sections of the area were dedicated to viniculture. Their leafy vines bore
mouth-watering bunches of red, green and purple grapes, in addition to other lower
vinelike plants such as cucumbers and marrows. Between the hydroponic troughs there
were wide bands of cereal plants and grasses growing in wide bands and still well-lighted
by the crystal panels above. !t was an amazingly well-ordered scene and the life-giving
fluid seemed to flow endlessly along the troughs at a slow and even rate.
The amount of vegetable products that they could see being grown here appeared
sufficient to supply many thousands of people with food for a year. Avistar said that the
plants grew and fruited constantly all year round, since there were no seasons. So their
output was continuous. Here and there, tall figures could be seen working over and among
the plants and trees in the troughs, but, apart for their height, they looked quite human
and normal to the spectral watchers.
Bright-glowing buildings were ranged alongside the walls of this extensive cavern
and these appeared to be principally domestic dwellings and warehouses - although there
were a few large and ornate ones obviously of some more noble purpose. Drew was
interested to note a large circular illuminated tunnel running out of each end of the cavern
and Avistar told him it was part of a connecting tunnel system that linked all the associated
city states in the Agharthian community of subterranean cities. He now suggested that
they might care to see a couple of these cities. Drew asked if they could follow one of the
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tunnels to its next connection and Avistar saw no ob]ection to that. !n fact, as he agreed,
his face lit up with a mischievous smile.
The group then headed into the smoothly-walled and perfectly cylindrical tunnel
and raced along it as it swerved to and fro in its course - obviously because its engineers
had found it necessary to avoid obstacles or tectonic chasms along its route.
Then suddenly, as they zoomed along in a carefree scattered group they found
themselves in serious danger! From around a sharpish curve, a streamlined goods
train" of some sort with dozens of segments like a caterpillar, came hurtling straight at
them at high speed! They had no chance to avoid it, and it simply ploughed through
them before they could move over to the tunnel wall. !t was only after it had vanished
behind them that they recovered from the shock. They had escaped what had appeared
like a horrible, certain-death accident, because they were in their as!IaI /Ims and there-
fore in another dimension! Drew realized that hed ]ust had time to think Whats up?
Cant the damn fool driver see us?" before the train" had whizzed IIgn! !nIugn them.
Errol grinned at him. Now youll understand why ! dont like travelling on the
subway!" But Drew was now pondering on how the train had been travelling at all, since
there were n IaIIs beneath it. The answer was supplied mentally by Avistar. They travel
by a magnet-active-antigravity principle. The tunnel walls have regularly-spaced circular
magnets that switch on in a relay-fashion to the opposite polarity to that of the train, as it
advances. At the same time, the portion of tunnel it is ]ust exiting changes to like"
polarity as the last train-section leaves it. This pushes the train forward, and since it is
fitted with antigravity shields all along its sections, the train is kept to the centre of the
tunnel at all times by gravitational repulsion."
Ny Word!" Drew replied. Would anyone mind if ! patent that idea when ! get back
Home? All youd need to supply is enough electricity to power the ring-magnets and
youre home and hosed!"
Or perhaps even VIII Power!" suggested Avistar with a smile.
Then suddenly, they were out into a brightly-lit city in a great bowl-shaped valley
surrounded by looming mountain cliffs. Or so it seemed. The sky above appeared a
bright pale blue as it had upon their own surface world until, upon close examination they
realized that it was actually a layer of steamy, pale-azure vapour, which was charged in
some way so that it glowed with its own inner light. The actual effect however, from a
near-ground level, was that of being in a wide high walled valley under a blue sky across
which the sun had not yet quite come into view. The sum total impact of the view thus
afforded was stunningly realistic. One could easily have believed that one was in a deep
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valley in a high mountainous region, like Switzerland or even the highlands of Scotland!
A green mossy algal growth which covered much of the lower cavern walls lent a lot
of credence to this, making them resemble mountainsides even more. Chas was immedi-
ately filled with a nostalgic sense of being back in his native Scotland, as was Hazel, who
often took climbing-holidays in New Zealands craggy South !sland.
As to the city itself, it had n! been modelled after those tall spired towers and
bulging domes they had seen in the !nner Earth, but was instead scattered liberally with
buildings of an almost mediaeval appearance, much more along the upward-sweeping
lines of the great Tibetan monasteries, such as the P!Ia, in Lhasa. !n fact, the moun-
tainous-looking surroundings did much to enhance this appearance, and the ghostly visi-
tors now realized that the effect was intentional.
These people, thought Drew, who were numerously to be seen in plain view around
the roads and fields surrounding these fortress-like structures, must share an ancestry
and kinship with the Tibetans! But which came /IIs!, he wondered, the CnIKn I !n
gg? Were these fairly modern Tibetans who had sought to escape persecution by the
Nongols, and later, the Chinese, by going underground - or was the IvIs actually the
truth? Had the Tibetans emerged from here to DgIn with?
This passing thought was again telepathically answered by Avistar. Whilst ! know
but little of chickens and eggs," he said, the answer to your rhetorical question, Drew, is
BOTH! The Lamaist Agharthians developed their culture here whilst taking refuge from
great upheavals on the outer surface. After which many ventured back up to the surface
again. But since they had suffered great oppressions in the past from the wild nomadic
tribes of central Asia, and more recently at the hands of their northern neighbours, many
of them have returned to their ancestral cavern land!"
He then went on to tell them all that this was true of most of the intercrustal com-
munities - with some very notable exceptions - and that Nankind had often had to hide
in such places for hundreds of generations at a time! This was the great problem with
being a surface-dweller upon an) planet!
Life on the surface was constantly under extreme danger from a thousand different
threats. From the Sun itself, or disturbances in the atmospheric elements, volcanic out-
bursts, tectonic tremors or polar tumbles which swept vast tidal waves across the land-
masses. And also from falling meteoric bodies from space itself!
Whilst he admired the dogged bravery of the Outer Dwellers in facing these multiple
hazards, he felt that it was also largely stubborn foolhardiness. Or simple ignorance! For
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many, if not most, Outer Dwellers were unaware of the great, safe caverns which often lay
only a few short miles beneath their feet!
Perhaps, he opined, the ruling-classes of the Earth aIIa) Knw of these gigantic
places of refuge, but preferred to keep them a ]ealously guarded secret, so that they could
reserve them solely for their own private security? He had seen and heard enough of
such rulers during his own incarnations upon the surface, to know that they still flourished
everywhere around the world!
!t was here that Errol reassured him that this was, in fact, !Iu, even in his own
country, which was supposed to be a great democracy in which the ruling-classes were
elected D) !n ppI to govern the country /I !n ppI! However, he had it on good
authority that these leaders had covertly set many provisions in place for their own safety
and those of their families and friends. As well as for their political and military col-
leagues!
Avistar nodded sadly. He said it had always been thus, and that the people of The
Outer World had a great deal to learn about misplaced trust, and the selfish greed that
comes with power. But they had already discussed this before, and it was going to be one
of the greatest problems they would shortly have to confront upon their appointed mis-
sion for the Sages. But this had already been foreseen by the Sages and they had
decided upon a simple stratagem to overcome it. However, all this would be revealed to
them at the appropriate point in time! Nevertheless, he made a careful mental note of
the important point Errol had raised.
!n the meantime, he urged them to observe closely and to fully understand how
each of these communities was able to survive in both comfort and plenty, without being
sub]ected to all the dangers of the surface. Now they would move on to their next
scheduled places on the tour.
Before they left this veritable Shangri La", he guided them into the largest building
in the valley" community, to a large chamber where a group of priests or High Lamas
were dispensing wisdom and ]ustice to all who sought these things. Oddly, there were
very few seekers or petitioners for either, and the answers to their problems were resolved
simply and without the need to impose penalties of any serious nature. !t seemed that
those who had (usuaII) quI! InavI!n!I)} offended or in]ured their neighbours in any
way, by word or deed were simply asked to apologize, and if necessary, make a suitable
reparation for any damage or loss they might have caused. Basically, because crime, as
such, was none-existent, the only remedy usually needed to heal such minor offences" -
if such they were - was essentially a voluntary form of Community-Service".
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However, if a man went crazy through some mental aberration or brain-damage, he
might require a term within a secure area of the central monastery where he could be
counseled and hopefully cured of his affliction. The only hospitals required here were
basically for the treatment of accidental in]uries, since diseases were virtually unknown at
such depths. The air was of such a radiantly healthful quality that microbial agents could
not survive in it.
He also told them that not aII of the Agharthian communities were exactly the same,
insofar as their cultures and building-styles were concerned, so each had its own little
unique departures from any imagined norm. This was what made their commonwealth of
cities so pleasant. People could freely travel between city-states as they chose, and could
thus en]oy a change of scenery, life-style and customs ]ust as they might on an above-
surface visit to another allied state or city.
However, they all shared the same common inherent peaceful traits and happiness
with their lot, nor were any citizens of any particular state envious of the locations and
circumstances of those who lived in others. For if they were, they were all entirely free to
change their places of abode without having to seek any official sanction. There were no
censuses here nor were there any taxes or official records kept of persons activities. This
was simply because there were no officials of any kind other than the Elders, who were
High Lama sages. All citizens of the Agharthian community of states were free and entirely
equal.
Now they moved on again, in Avistars wake, to their next port of call. This was
another Agharthian state but one which was essentially rural in its general setting and
appearance. !nstead of the great !nner Earth type of metropolis they had been anticipat-
ing, they found themselves in a rather pretty and green landscape. !t was largely covered
with woodland copses of forest trees such as pine, birch and spruce, with plenty of open
pastures and rich lush meadows in between dotted with pretty alpine wild flowers.
Through these, little streams of clear ice-melt water gurgled and chuckled merrily
along to a central lake where herons stalked its reeds and geese swam along its edges.
!ts waters were beautifully clear and inviting, and fishes of many freshwater varieties
could be seen darting about in its cool depths. Both Drew and Errol had the same
thought. !f only they had come here In !n /Isn, they would have loved to have taken a
refreshing plunge!
There were many little villages strewn, seemingly haphazardly, among these open
stretches and even animals gamboled and grazed in the meadows. Animals such as
hares, wild sheep, gazelles, goats, sturdy little mountain ponies and shaggy yaks, which
were clearly free to ramble where they pleased. Other smaller animals inhabited the
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woodlands such as squirrels, marmots and even lynx, and the birdlife was abundant,
many different pollen-gathering insects buzzed industriously among the little colourful
clumps of flowers.
There was a well-trodden network of paths leading from one hamlet to another, and
the inhabitants could be seen hefting bundles of dead sticks and twigs for their cooking-
fires. Their houses were mainly one or two-story structures of stone or mud brick, with
pine-shingled roofs and crystal-paned windows, installed more for privacy than for protec-
tion from the elements. They, like most other people in Agharti, were almost strictly
vegetarians, although these wI inordinately partial to the thick milk from the yaks, and
the resultant butter they made from it which they especially liked in their tea! They grew
their own tea-bushes beside their homes, the leaves of which they picked, dried, bagged,
and drank in copious amounts.
However, much of their surplus tea and yak-milk butter was donated to the commu-
nity hydroponic food centre for distribution to others elsewhere who had nowhere to grow
such bushes or had yaks to milk!. This gesture was a partial thank-you" for the fruit and
vegetables they obtained free, delivered by the distribution train" every day. Taken all in
all, it was an idyllic and bucolic sort of life for the peasants". But they only lived as
peasants by choice and not because of any poverty or deprivation. Anyone was free in
the Agharthian commonwealth to live however they chose, and none were regarded as
any less important than anyone else.
Again, however, the five companions remarked to Avistar upon the rather sad and
very noticeable absence of cn1Idren playing and romping happily across the scene. !t
was a wonderfully peaceful outlook, and one they would have been most contented with.
But the one vital ingredient it lacked was the merry laughter of children at play.
Avistar made no comment to this, but he quietly added it to the other growing list of
mental notes he was quietly recording in his voluminous mental notebook for edification
of the Sages of Shamballah the Great!
After a little more time of wistful inspection of the pretty valley by his charges,
Avistar again suggested that they continue on with their survey tour. But this time he had
a new and not quite so pleasant surprise in store for his five companions!
Before they set out, however, Avistar gave them a brief talk.
! mentioned to you earlier" he said, that there was one who dwelled in these
regions who declared himself to be the KIng / !n WII. Nany of your Outer Dwellers,
alas, believed him to be an avatar of the Lord Jesus Christ. !t is said in your Christian
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Bible, that The Christ will come secretly ]ust before the end of this world to remove all his
believers to safety in a realm of Heaven.
After this wondrous event, the world will be sub]ected to the rule of its final tyrant,
an evil emperor whose name, although yet unknown, equals the ill-omened number, 666.
He will rule supreme and bring a terrible reign of blood and terror such as the world had
never witnessed. One which will end in the final battle of Armageddon.
During this time, the Great Creator Spirit will wreak his own terrible vengeance
upon the world. For all its remaining people will be those who re]ected The Christ and
have accepted the fatal Nark of this bestial tyrant. All manner of terrible plagues and
catastrophes will befall them, until finally, at the onset of the last mighty battle, The Christ
will again appear.
This time he will bring with him a vast army of those who are now his Saints. Your
Bible then proclaims that The Christ will blast the army of this bestial Antichrist emperor
with a mighty radiative light from his eyes and a great powerful sound from his mouth.
This will utterly route them and they will be all be killed and vast flocks of vultures will
gather to eat their flesh Then the Antichrist will be seized, together with his false prophet,
and they will both be cast alive into a great pit filled with a lake of brimstone and fire.
There, their souls will be left to burn forever."
Here Avistar broke off his dissertation for a moment to add a remark of his own.
The Book does n! say, however, if this pit will necessarily be within our earth. ! feel that
it may well be inside a great volcano. Or perhaps some great blazing new star - or even a
specially-created phenomenon in another dimension! ! am merely telling you what this
prophecy of Revelation says!"
Chas put in a word here. Whilst Ah ken Weel yon Book of Revelation, Avistair, and
that pairhaips these young folk havnae heaird o it. What a cannae onderstand is why
yere takin the time tae tell us aboot it noo! Unlaiss yere expaictin it tae haippen at anny
time soon?" He paused a moment then added. Och, Aye! An ah was wonderin if this will
affaict the Eenner A1rIn, too, dye ken?"
Avistar considered the professors spectral form with some gravity for a moment
before replying.
This whole matter is one that we in the !nner Earth have pondered for many cen-
turies. Ever since it was first made know by John, Christs best-loved friend and disciple,
who was exiled on the isle of Patmos by the Romans in your Aegean Sea. We in Edena
believe in the Great Creator Spirit who is also your God, and thus we also believe that this
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man, Tn CnIIs!, was especially chosen as His Representative to an exceedingly unruly
and corrupt nation. That Christ was a man cannot be doubted, since he was born in a
normal human way, and lived a normal human life until the time came for his preordained
mission. Also he protested at all times that he was the 5on o1 man and noI an actual
5on o1 God - such as the II!I)-Ia! angels are designated. Does not your Holy
Book show The Christ to have stressed this point on many occasions to those about him,
friends and enemies alike?"
His audience of five were listening with very close attention now to his thought-
provoking comments many of which they had never really considered before. But now he
moved on again.
Thus we have this alleged Avatar" of the Christ, Who designates himself as King
of the World" and also as the Naitreya", both of which are claimed to be reincarnations of
Christ. He is still here within these hidden fastnesses, awaiting his call forth upon the
world stage. But it is my own belief that, in reality, this person is the false prophet of the
evil dragon Emperor, the Beast 666, who is yet to come, and that both he and his future
principal, are the servants of Satan!
Now, since you are to play a ma]or role in the renewal of this planets surface, ! feel
that it behooves me to show you some proof of the truths of Satan and his foolish angel
followers. Those Fallen angels who were forcibly e]ected from the Great Spirit Gods King-
dom and cast down upon the Earth for their ridiculous attempt at an insurrection against
Him, under the arrogant and vain Archangel Lucifer! These were once members of the
holy giant nephelim angels of God. But even their expulsion from Heaven was not
punishment enough for some of those who took on human form, and then, driven by
carnal lust, had sexual relations with the women of Earth. Their offspring, the Nefilim,
were giants too, and became revered by the men of the Earth as Gods", thus becoming
the Titans" of the Atlanteans, and then of the Athenians! !t was the giant pIgn) of
these Titans who then became the ancient pantheon of sibling Olympian gods to the
Greeks and then the Romans!
However, the Great Creative Spirit was roused to anger by the impious actions of
the traitorous Nephelim who procreated these monsters. He commanded His trusted
and loyal angels to chain these malefactors away in a special place of inky darkness under
the Earth until the final Day of Judgment of all flesh. They have been confined there in
Tartarus for many millennia now. !t is !nI ! will now conduct you, so that you may see
for yourself that, among the many ancient Hebrew myths and later mistranslations, there
is still much IaI !Iu!n within your Christian Bible!"
Of course, all of this great welter of information gave four of the five friends furiously
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to think. Only the professor, and to some extent, Narianne, felt some vindication in
hearing Avistars words. The others, who had only recently begun to realize that there
was some truth in the things they had once been taught. Things they had cast aside as
they became mature" enough in mind to become convinced that religion as such was, as
Carl Narx had once described it, !n pIa! / !n masss. An opiate which they soaked
up hungrily in order to try and make some sense out of all the evil in]ustices and inequali-
ties of the world. Somehow, the followers of most world religions had felt that the only
way to Heaven and eternal peace, was through a God-ordained living Hell of torment,
trial, hunger, sickness and miserable death!
Drew thought again of the Christian precepts that his adopted mother, Joan, had
tried so hard to instill into him, and had managed, however partially, to achieve ]ust before
he began the great ]ourney. Some of the seeds she had strewn had found fertile ground
in his spirit, and the subsequent trials they had experienced in the face of ultimate evil had
caused them to take firm root there. Errol was in much the same case, since he allowed
himself to be led and convinced by Drews conclusions. Hazel had similarly begun to take
her lead from Narianne, so now they were all infinitely wiser in spiritual matters than
when they had first set forth.
So it was with some mild trepidation but a much greater curiosity that they now
allowed Avistar to guide them to this watershed experience.
Now their route led them directly downward toward the famous alleged Nohorov-
icic Discontinuity" which was in reality a region of the deepest tunnels and caverns in the
crust. That same region they had passed through as they were sucked along by the great
maelstrom tube through and beyond the centre of gravitation of the crust. Soon they
found themselves in rather familiar territory - a stygian black labyrinth of gloomy passages
and tunnels, of yawning black chasms and vast caverns of tangibly enormous size and
darkness. Their guide led them unerringly on, the blue-white light of their powerful aural
emissions lighting the thick gloom around them as they passed. At last, after following
Avistar through a maze of winding corridors and vaults, they halted before a great stone
door set in a wall of archaic olivine rock. !t had no lock or bolts, but it was obviously
securely locked in place. There was a curiously-glowing inscription burned into the living
rock above the door, but it cursive legend was not in any script or tongue known to any of
them.
Here Avistar advised them to steel their spirits with every atom of their trust in God
and wIII themselves through the door. He paused a moment, staring fixedly at the door,
then suddenly he sprang forward and vanished through it! Drew tried it next, and after
two or three false starts, he finally followed Avistar. Then the others followed at staggered
intervals, according to their strength of resolve, with the stalwart Scot bringing up the rear
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and stepping easily and effortlessly through.
!nside the dungeon it was even darker than it had been in the dark corridor. !t was
a paIpaDI blackness, and at first they could sense nothing through it, but as Avistar
moved warily forward, they began to pick up distant doleful cries and groans, and the
occasional metallic clanking rattle of chains. At length, their bright auras must have been
seen by the inmates of this stygian and frigid place, for they were addressed by fearful
voices from the darkness ahead.
At first, they quite unable to comprehend a single spoken syllable of the words,
which were uttered in a strange language rich in sibilant consonants and harsh gutturals,
but with musical tones intermixed in it. The language was almost one of song and chant
rather than of speech. But there was no mistaking the pleading sadness underlying it.
Avistar then addressed the invisible speakers by telepathic means and this proved to be
the key to their communication difficulty.
! am sorry, but we do not know your tongue. Perhaps it might be better if we were
to attempt to communicate via spiritual means through the mind. Please respond if you
can receive this thought." he said, using his powerfully telepathic power.
At once a doleful yet melodious voice, heavy with the weariness and suffering of
unimaginable aeons of time spoke out mentally in response to his question.
Who art thou who come here to this God-forsaken dungeon? !s it at length the
hour of our final ]udgment? We can see from thine auras that ye are not Angels of Gods
Light, as we once were, but are nonetheless some other creatures of His, for thy gleamings
are true enough in colour. Are ye then come to lead us forth from this pit of despair to His
Judgment Seat - or mayhap we be already sentenced, and ye are sent here as our execu-
tioners? !f so, we beseech thee to make a speedy end of us that we might find peace,
even if only in oblivion!"
Nany other telepathic voices now ]oined with that of the first spokesman, begging
for a swift dispatch into oblivion, rather than suffer another hour in this dreary pit. Their
mournful, pitiful cries were terribly saddening to the minds of their listeners, and Drew
found himself feeling great sorrow for their plight. But who was he to dare question the
edict of God Almighty? Readings his sad thoughts, his companions ]oined with him in his
pity.
Now a new voice entered their minds. But it was even more sepulchral in its depth
of misery than the first.
Strangers," said the voice, "We sense thy pity, but ! fear it is wasted upon such as
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we. !f the Lord God Himself cares nought for our plight, what can thy pity and sadness
avail us? What brought us here was nought but our own folly, and we have had long
enough to see this down these many long ages. What of !n) world, strangers? Hast any
news of our one-time leader? We trust that he has long since met with his ]ust reward for
leading us astray! We have heard nought of the world or of our offspring in many thou-
sands of years. Perhaps once !n) have all died out, our carnal sins might be expunged
from the Lords list of evil deeds! Tell us, O Nen - if such ye be! - What of Lucifer and the
our nefilim children? And what of our brethren who also followed Lucifer?"
Avistar left this one for the professor to answer - if he could. Chass voice now rang
out true and clear in their minds, but now free of his normal Scots accent.
! cannot undertake to speak upon behalf of the Nost High, but ! can tell thee
something of our world. Thy leader, Lucifer, is now its Prince, and is called Satan" since
he remains the adversary of God, and evil flourishes more now than when thou wast
incarcerated here. As for thine offspring. Nany of these were drowned when God sent a
great flood upon all the Earth, but their seed still survived by some chance, and their
descendants still dwell upon the Earth now in aII men! However, the Nost High sent a
Nan to become a sacrifice for all sinners among men, and those of us who have chosen to
hear His Word are now forgiven, and will see His Kingdom, even though we must still
suffer during this earthly life. As to thy leader, and thy brethren in rebellion. They still
continue to bring misery and torment upon all flesh, and have reduced this once fair Earth
to a ruinous state by their depredations.
However, we have it on good authority from Gods Nessenger, our Saviour Jesus
Christ, that all will one day be restored and the Earth shall be renewed. !t is also written
that Lucifer-Satan" and all of his followers, whether they be spirits or flesh, shall perish in
a great Lake of Fire. Alas, this will include thyselves - unless God is gracious unto thee - as
well as a vast number of Nen who have allowed themselves to become tainted by dire sin
and evil! This will be Satans hollow victory as well as his richly-deserved end. !t sorrows
me greatly that ! have no better news to bring thee! Fare thee as well as thou canst, and
may God show thee His Nercy and compassion."
After the professors mental voice ceased to speak, there was a great empty silence
of the spirit on both sides. For these impassioned mental speeches" had registered
deeply in the minds of the listeners on both sides.
Finally the first mental voice returned, only this time, it seemed to emanate from
much closer at hand.
We prisoners of the Lord here in Tartarus give thee our thanks for thy kindly visita-
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tion and thy words. We see only a passing Warrior Angel once in a while, and it is not
granted them to speak with us. You have brought us some cheer and a little hope. For this
we bless thee - for whatsoever a /aIIn angels blessing may be worth! Nay God be with
thee always, friends. And now, Farewell!" The speaker ended with a mental sob, and his
farewell was echoed by a couple of hundred other like minds.
As they turned to go, Drew caught the faintest glimpse of the shades of two or three
of the prisoners. They were like pallid ghostly giants, still clad in their once-immaculate
angelic robes now reduced to dirty white rags. They possessed no great white wings.
Drew assumed that, had they ever actually possessed any, they would have been the first
things to be removed from them. He also saw the faintest glint of ancient, tarnished
golden chains around their ankles and bodies. Their faces were gaunt and haunted, with
deeply-shadowed eyes looking sadly down at him and his companions. The chains, of
course, were doubtlessly purely symbolic and as ghostly as their spectral wearers. !t was
indeed a sorrowful and much chastened quintet of human spirits who followed Avistar
back through the great stone dungeon door and away from that place.
None of them said much, for there was little to say, but the experience would dwell
on in their souls forever. As far as all of them were concerned the truth of their spiritual
and religious teachings had been proven once and for all time.
Avistar had one other place that he wished them to see before leaving this gloomy
realm. What do you know of ADIanams Bsm?" he mentated quietly to Chas. Have you
ever heard of it?"
Chas regarded him with astonishment, sufficient indeed to make him again forget
his Scottish persona. But that is the place that Christ referred to when he spoke of the
rich man, at whose gate Lazarus the beggar sat, in his poverty and sickness! As ! recall
the story, the rich man refused to even give poor Lazarus the crumbs from his table.
However, he died and his spirit went to HII - or the 5nI of the Hebrews - but when
Lazarus died of sickness and starvation outside the rich mans abundantly-provided pal-
ace, his spirit was sent to ADIanams Bsm, which was the name then given to the
aI!nI) PaIaIs where all the Godliest souls dwelt. There he at last received all sorts of
good things in abundance for himself ."
And then what happened?" asked Avistar, smiling as one who already knew the
answer.
The professor, without hesitation, told him that as Lazarus was sitting there in that
marvelous place, he looked out through its entrance across into Hell, where he saw the
tormented ghost of the rich man, now in rags and stricken with great thirst because of the
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intense heat, reaching out toward Paradise and calling to Abraham.
Father Abraham!" cried the rich mans spirit. !f thou hast any mercy, send Lazarus
over with a single drop of water upon his finger to at least moisten my tongue because of
the hot flames!"
But Abraham sadly told the rich man: Remember, my son, that when you were
both alive, you had every good thing your heart desired, whilst Lazarus received nothing.
Now you are tormented whist Lazarus is comforted. As for the water. ! cannot. For be-
tween us is a great gulf fixed across which nothing may pass in either direction!"
So the rich man asked Abraham to at least send Lazarus to his fathers house and
tell his five brothers of his plight, so that they would not end up in the same state. But
Abraham replied that the five brothers still had Noses and all of the prophets instructions
on how to live a good and upright life.
Whereupon the rich man said. but !f you send Lazarus DaK /Im !n a they
will suII) listen to nIs words!" But Abraham said, No, my son! !f your brothers will not
take any heed of Noses or the prophets, why should they take heed of some trifling
beggar who has come back from the dead?"
But why are you asking me about all this?" the professor asked when he had
finished retelling the proverb. Do you mean that when we return to the upper world
nobody will believe us? !s that what youre hinting at?"
No!" said Avistar. ! am sure that they wIII believe every word you say! No, Charles,
what ! wondered was whether you - or any of the others - really believed in that Heaven
and Hell and the great Pit between them - the actual places that Christ spoke of in his
parable. That subterranean Paradise is empty now, since Christ was crucified, but Hell still
remains! Perhaps you would care to see this place for yourselves whilst we are in this
Archaean realm?" He stared at them in the gloom.
At first they hesitated, but their curiosity finally got the better of them, and without
further ado, Avistar led them away through these ancient foundational rock caverns in the
heart of the Earths crust until, finally, they found themselves on the brink of a vast aper-
ture, that was lighted from below with the orange-red glow of flickering flames. Avistar
pointed downward and as they drew near the apertures edge, they could see a vast
amphitheatre stretching as far as the eye could see. !t was a great cavernous plain of
smoldering, heated rocks interspersed with open cracks and crevices in the cindery floor
from which issued bursts of flame and gouts of seething molten lava. The air was utterly
befouled with billowing smoke and the stench of burning sulphur. !t was quite literally and
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truly like a scene from Dantes 1n/In.
Drew recalled having once attempted to read that fearsome epic, but it had become
so unnerving that he had to abandon it. He recalled wondering how a living man could
have described such an appalling scene without driving himself mad with the total despair
and horror of what he had forced nImsI/ as his own main protagonist to witness under the
guidance of the Greek classic poet, virgil. Whether it was the product of his own imagina-
tion or something shown him in a terrible vision was not clear, but the sheer horror of it all
had rung as true as if it were a real visit.
And now here they were seeing it much as Dante had envisioned it. The sight was
dreadful enough but the sound was almost beyond description. The roiling smoke-filled
air was filled, not so much with the intermittent piercing shrieks of agony and torment -
although there was certainly no lack of such - as with the murmurous, muted background
of doleful groans of perpetual misery, heartrending sobs of desperate sorrow and the
bitter weeping of wretched hopelessness. !t was like the dull rumbling murmur of a sea
of ab]ect despair from which sudden strident sounds of unbearable agony arose like the
clashing of white wavecaps.
Now their spiritual vision sharpened to allow them to see the sufferers in this terri-
fying, endless colosseum of frightful torment which even Caligula or Nero would have
envied. Some were simply the spirits of those who had erred from the path of goodness
and righteousness. They had been sent here simply to suffer by witnessing the torments
of others who had committed serious crimes against the Great Creative Spirit and their
fellow creatures. However, there were also the totally damned spirits of the truly evil who
had surrendered their souls to the Prince of all evil, and were now reaping their rewards.
!t was !n) who tormented those whose sins were simply those of error or omission.
What need had God to employ Satans demons, when these vicious human spirits were so
thick upon the Earth?
But rather than it being a place of extreme torment by the fiendish demons of Satan
- for the Great Spirit would never employ such creatures - it seemed largely to be a
distorted and exaggerated view of the vileness of the outer world in Drews eyes. All the
same ingredients of malignant evil were here as they were there! The misery, the nasti-
ness, the horror, the pain and suffering, the unremitting brutality and hatred, and above
all else, the sheer despair in which so many lived in the physical world.
Suddenly Drew could see it all now. As could all the others who were sharing his
thoughts as they came into his mind. This place called HII was really a concentrated
perpetuation of all that was evil, corrupt and horrible in the world. Heaven or Paradise
must therefore be its precise reverse, a perpetuation of all that was good, clean and
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beautiful in the world. Now it began to make more sense to him than those utterly
incredible concepts of Hell he had been fed as a child. The terrible images of thousands
of millions of naked souls screaming and shouting in excruciating agony as they boiled
eternally in a great lake of molten lava, suffering all the indescribable torment of it in every
spiritual nerve and fibre.
And to think that these images - complete with pitchfork wielding demons and a
cackling, red-suited Satan, complete with long pointed tail, mustaches and pointed beard,
had been planted in the mind of an innocent little boy by his religious instructors at the
religion-centred boarding school. Zealots who had hoped, by thus presenting their mer-
ciful and loving Gods ]ust punishment to all who offended him, that they would cause that
child to grow up loving and exalting such a tyrannical and dreadfully vengeful Heavenly
Father.
!nstead, Drew na grown up, as had millions before him, terrified of falling foul of
this fearsome Creator, because of this same dreadful presentation No wonder then, that
as soon as he was away from the sphere of their influence, and into a University environ-
ment, he had promptly steered well clear of all religious aspirations.
Then he recalled that day, not so very long ago, when he had - primarily for Joans
peace of mind - reaffirmed his faith in God as a Christian. He had given her his solemn
oath to hold fast to it come what may. An nIs word was nIs ond1 Not ]ust to Joan, but
to himself as well. !t looked very much like he was stuck with it all. come Hell or High
Water! Or even the LaK / FII!
But here Avistar interrupted his thoughts. There Is n such place, Drew, though
it is not here on the Earth. Some believe it may be the planet venus, whose surface is
exactly that - a IaK / /II - for its surface is constantly awash with the outpourings of a
mighty host of volcanoes, and the atmosphere is a boiling mass of seething and often
poisonous gases which cannot condense to cool the surface. This is what the Earth once
was - and what it may yet Dm agaIn, if Nankind continues to pollute and destroy the
very air he breathes! Global warming will soon graduate to gIDaI DIIIng if Nan is not
turned aside from this path to madness! !t is all being driven by human corruption and
the pursuit of wealth. And wealth is not only the root of evil, but it is the key nutrient upon
which evil feeds! ! brought you here to see this vision not to frighten or alarm you, but to
bring that very point home into your souls. This is why ! discussed the parable of the rich
man with Charles here!"
So this place isnt actually IaI, then?" asked Errol. !ts ]ust a kinda vision" you
con]ured for our edification. Right?"
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NOl" boomed Avistar. WRONGl Hell will always exist in all its hideous reality, as
long as Nen continue to ignore or flout the rules of the Great Creative Spirit and of Nature!
Remember this old adage, which ! believe is common among your people: As AoVe, so
BeIow! Or, if you wish, you can IvIs the statement - it is all the same!
And now," he continued, having shown you this vIsIn, let us continue on and
complete our study of the intercrustal realms!"
Now they flashed away after Avistar, directly through the solid rock of the crust until
they found themselves inside a great tunnelled causeway. !t appeared to run off into the
distance both before and behind them, and it was illuminated by some form of pale
natural fluorescence that was emitted from the evenly-cut rock walls themselves. The
floor was flat and smooth as if worn thus by the passage of millions of feet, wheels, and
even sleds. !n some places the ruts of thick wheels were quite pronounced, ]ust as in
others there were signs of heavy drag-marks. But over all there was the patina of long
ages of wear by human feet, naked and shod. The walls were her and there sullied by
many specimens of antique graffiti, in a hundred ancient scripts and hieroglyphs. Some
were recognizable.
Here was a pithy saying inscribed in Sanskrit, there a few words in ancient Greek
Even ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Sumerian cuneiform names and comments had
been gouge into the stone, together with other inscriptions of obviously Oriental charac-
ter. But amazingly they also saw characters of distinctly AmIIan appearance, such as
might still be found in the ruins of the Peruvian !ncas, or the Nayan, Toltec and Aztec
temples of that vast continent.
Avistar paused here and, like some sort of tour-guide, he explained that they were
now inside the fabled TunnI UnI !n WII.
But ! thought this was purely a wild tale, for Petes Sake!" cried Errol. Who could
possibly have hacked out such a fantastic undertaking as this! You sure this isnt ]ust
another of your illusions", Avistar?" He grinned faintly as he saw Avistars brow begin to
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crease in annoyance. Only kidding around, old buddy!" he said with a nervous laugh.
But it really s kinda stagger ones belief!"
You may ]est," said Avistar, but this tunnel and some others with which it connects
can take men virtually around the world, with barely a glimpse of daylight from the upper
surface. !n fact, there are many sections of it still being used today by those who wish to
move swiftly across continents and even beneath the oceans, in certain places. At this
moment we are still beneath the continent of Asia, but if you will fly with me now, let us
see where this particular tunnel carries us. This ! can tell you. Nost of the ancient
subterranean - Aye! And even sumar1ne - cities and states can be accessed by means of
this tunnel or its off-shoots!
However, let us ]ust allow this tunnel to take us wither it will, and see what marvel
might await us along the way!" And so saying, without waiting for his companions to
gather their wits, he shot away along the tunnel at the speed of thought in a westward
direction. !t was with some difficulty that the five friends managed to keep pace with
him, but it seemed as though they had barely begun to travel before he stopped again.
We are now beneath that area that was once assumed to be the original site of the
Garden of Eden." he said. The same place where mighty Babylon once stood beside the
great Euphrates! Now, if we continue onward the tunnel will take a more southerly track,
underneath ancient Petra and Sinai, close to that great mountain where the Great Cre-
ative Spirit once spoke to Noses as he led the !sraelites across the desert. Then we shall
pass below the region where they crossed the marshes near Suez on their flight from
Egypt, after which, we shall find ourselves directly beneath those once-great Shamballan
monuments which stand at Al Jizah, beside the Nile. There we shall pause, awhile, for !
have things to show you that are not even guessed at by your modern scholars!"
He smiled at his five novitiates enigmatically. You shall see!" They flew on along the
great tunnel, and as they did so, Errols mind was feverishly racing even further ahead
than the others. He was thinking of the tremendous book he intended to write about all
of their experiences, once they had completed their mysterious mission and he finally got
back home to Detroit.
However, as usual, Avistar had read Errols mind like an open book itself and ad-
dressed him mentally as they sped along.
What if, at the completion of your mission, Errol, the Sages, in their infinite wisdom,
decide to erase all remembrance of these things from your mind? What kind of a book will
you write then, my friend? True, by then you will have achieved some considerable
notoriety in your contact with the great leaders of your world, but scribes would write
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books about you and your companions here, anyhow! So why would you seek to make
any further capital from this great undertaking of which, even before the event, you are
now already a part? This hunger for personal fame appears to be a curious malady that
afflicts all the men of your world today!
But, fear not! You will aII en]oy fame aplenty in the fullness of time, if your final
mission is successful! Possibly more than you may wish or desire!"
Then he slowed down, as did the others with him, until he was moving at little more
than a walking pace. As he advanced slowly along the tunnel in this manner, he glanced
carefully from side to side until at length his eyes found what they sought. Here the tunnel
walls, which had hitherto been virtually solid rock all the way, suddenly appeared as
horizontal, striated layers. Like the sedimentary layers that had once been laid down as
ancient seabeds. He continued thus for more than a mile, until the striations once more
gave way to solid foundational rock. Then, a few hundred yards further upon the right
hand side, he saw what he was looking for.
A dark cleft showed up in the smoothly-dressed rock wall, and he led the others into
it. They rose up a square shaft for some distance, until they found themselves in a large
man-made balconied chamber carved out of the solid granite. As they looked back down
the shaft, they now noticed that it had a winding staircase cut out of the rock which led up
from the level of the tunnel. The chamber itself was very high, and tall doorways were set
in each of its four faces.
The doors themselves were huge, perfectly-cut slabs of the same granite rock, and
all were closed hermetically tight. Not the tiniest grain of sand or a molecule of water
could have penetrated their perfect ]oints. Nor were there any handles or other means of
opening them in evidence. However, this was no obstacle to the spectral visitors, who
simply slid through the foot-thick granite of the first door as if it were nothing more than
a mere bead-curtain.
However, once inside they could only hover and gape in incredulous wonder. They
had entered a veritable Aladdins Cave of ancient marvels. Drew felt sure that this was a
long hidden treasure-house that must predate the ancient Pyramids of Egypt by many
thousands of years!
Avistar smiled at him and reassured him that his guess was indeed correct, not only
did this great structure predate the pyramids of Giza, but it also lay several hundred feet
below them!
!t was, in fact, the long sought-after HaII / PIs which many modern research-
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ers now believed to lie beneath either the Great Pyramid of Khufu or the Sphinx. They
were IIgn!, too - but they had simply not though pI) enough!
These scholars, who for the most part were free thinkers like himself, had for the
most part, wIngI) assumed that the builders of the Pyramid and the Sphinx (/I !n)
wI !w spaIa! gIups / ppI} had constructed the famed and legendary Hall of
Records /IIs!, before erecting either one of those antique monuments on top of it! !t had
no more to do with the Pharaoh Kufu, than did either his aIIg pyramid or the millennia-
earlier Sphinx.
!t was Drews opinion as a keen student of archaeology, that Kufu, had been simply
an opportunist who had claimed the Great Pyramid for himself, as later, his son, Khafre,
had claimed the second pyramid and the Sphinx! Although in this he was not the first to
think of this cheap and speedy way to fame and glory. An earlier pharaoh, Thutmoses !v,
had the weather-worn lions head of the Sphinx re-carved into his own semblance. Then
Khafre had later had Thutmoses head further remodelled to look more like himself. Small
wonder, then, that the sandblasts human head now looked so ridiculously small for the
huge lions body!
As Drew had reflected upon these ideas of his, Avistar had again read his mind, and
now told him that in many respects his suspicions were right, although he was quite
wrong in one matter. However, he refused to tell Drew where he was wrong, which
annoyed Drew not a little, since he had written a thesis upon the sub]ect, and hated the
idea of having to correct himself!
You will reason it out for yourself in due course." the Avahallan told Drew, but !
would rather allow you to use your own mind-power to discover your error. You will never
learn anything if ! keep on supplying you with the answers!"
All of this exchange had, of course, taken a mere few seconds in mental time, but in
the interim they had moved inside and begun to examine some of the things that lay
inside the giant museum of treasures. Nany of the items were quite large and of an
advanced technological nature, although, unlike most modern technological machinery,
these had been designed by aI!Is!IaII)-mIn mechanics.
For example there was a self-propelled chariot which was operated by some
antigravitational means, yet its bodywork was graven on every panel with ancient images
of its owner and his deities, and its metallic framework of silver and bronze was covered
with pro]ecting curlicues and floral devices. Obviously the designer had not bothered to
concern himself overmuch with the dynamics of air-resistance and considerations of safety
to other road or sky users. The chariot was not only a utilitarian artifact, it was also a work
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of art! This same somewhat early victorians theme seemed to flow on through various
similar machines and appliances, and in this regard, lent then a strangely Jules vernean
appearance.
Even H.G. Wells ornate Time-Nachine would not have looked out of place here
among all these curios and often unidentifiable glittering and gleaming gems of mechani-
cal artistry, nor would vernes famous Captain Nemos submarine craft, The Nautilus"!
Streamlining had clearly not been an issue with many of the ob]ects.
However, there was one that stopped all of them - even Avistar himself - in their
tracks. For suspended from the high ceiling of this wondrous museum was a disc-shaped,
saucerlike flying craft that was almost a replica of those which flew around the skies in
Edena! Avistar immediately vanished inside it, and then emerged shaking his head. !t
was not of !nner Earth manufacture, but it clearly possessed a wonderful technology, far
in advance even of their own! !t must have traveled from somewhere far out in space,
even beyond their own galaxy, since he could not even identify the metals of which it was
built! He had seen many extraterrestrial vehicles of a similar style but this one was of a
manufacture and drive about which he knew nothing.
! would take this ship back immediately to vallissum, if ! could only take the time to
discover its power source and control system!" remarked Avistar. But we have still two or
perhaps three more places to visit before we return. However, ! may well return to this
repository later and find out how to make it operate. We have many excellent engineers
in vallissum who have the necessary cunning and skill to find out such secrets. ! will bring
one with me that between us we may discover its operation and will be able to fly it to
Avahalla!"
But ! thought Shamballah was the smartest city in Edena?" said Errol. How come
you wanna take it to vallissum to back-engineer it?"
Avistar answered him by saying that although Shamballah boasted the finest philo-
sophical and academic minds in Edena, and were the wisest in all the powers of the mind
and the fullest knowledge and understanding of vril, they were nor renowned for their
practical skills. Each state in Edena had its own area of expertise and Avallahs was the
ability to design and produce mechanical and electronic machines and apparatus.
Then he looked at Errol quizzically. Pardon my seeming ignorance, but what is
BaK-ngInIIng? This is something of which ! have not yet heard!"
So Errol had to explain to him about the alleged activities around some secret mili-
tary bases in his country, where scientists and mechanics took apart captured alien space-
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craft, or UFOs, in order to discover what made them tick" - what power they used and
the principle of their operation. Just as Avistar planned to do with this craft.
Ah! ! unIs!an now!" smiled Avistar. ! rather like this term Back-Engineering"
and will see that our engineers use it in future! Not of course that we apply such a process
very often! We have managed well enough with our own ingenuity, in most areas! How-
ever, you Surface people have many clever verbal idioms which save a good deal of cir-
cumlocution in your speech! !t is probably because, lacking any universal skill in telepa-
thy, you have to rely upon the spKn word - which is a cumbersome and slow means of
communication. ! must try to apply some of these verbal shortcuts myself in my speech
with you! ! may need to use it later on when we set forth upon our mission to communi-
cate ideas to your people!"
Too bloody right you will !" said Drew, unconsciously giving Avistar a classic ex-
ample of his own native idiomatic speech. A style of Aussie English which was as full of
pithy and to- the-point phrases and slang, as was Errols American ]argon. To which Errol
added simply: You betcha, buddy!"
But that was the end of their discussion of linguistics, for there were still many other
marvelous things to see in this great treasury of historical ingenuity. They found many
other machines here which defied all explanation as to their function or purpose, and
again, Avistar resolved to take some of these back in the ship at a later date for Back
Engineering"! But one of the interesting hand-held gadgets that Hazel had been ponder-
ing over, almost wrecked the place. She assumed it to be some kind of kitchen appliance
or possibly something one might use in the garden as a spray of some kind. But when she
focussed her mind upon its possible use, a sudden bolt of vivid pinkish-purple light flashed
from its forward end and blasted one of the exhibits into atoms! The item she had
inadvertently blasted vanished instantly and left no residue at all! !t was fortunate that
the mental trigger mechanism was set to fire only a single shot at a time, otherwise, in her
natural panic, Hazel might have destroyed everything in sight, before finding out how to
stop the thing firing!
Avistar used this unfortunate incident to drive home a salutary lesson In 1/ Yu
Dn! Knw Wna! 1! Ds - Dn! FII WI!n 1!1. These things" he said, appear to have
been placed here at random by people who had no comprehension of their purposes! So
it would be better if we were to regard !nm aII as highly dangerous, until they have been
properly tested! Now, since this seems to be a museum of transportation and military
artifacts, let us try another chamber!"
Within a trice, they had entered the next chamber. The walls of this one were
hidden by great latticeworks of diagonally crisscrossed racks, and into every diamond-
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shaped aperture of them were stacked rolls of ancient papyrus and yellowish vellum-like
material.
There were many large tables standing around the open floor of this chamber and
one some of these were other, unrolled sheets of the same materials covered with intri-
cate diagrams and charts bearing explanatory texts in some unknown language - or lan-
guages - since many of them were unlike. Some of the charts were obviously star-
maps. Others were like geographical charts of unrecognizable regions, though which were
continents or oceans was hard to decipher on most of them. However, a few were of
recent enough vintage to incorporate little sketches of landmarks such as volcanoes and
mountain chains, or of oceanic creatures and what appeared to be ships or vessels of
various kinds.
Drew was fortunate enough to see one poking out from beneath some others that
showed the unmistakable shape of the African continent, but being in the spirit he was
unable to uncover more of the map. However, Avistar saw his predicament and using his
enormous vril-enhanced mental powers, he was able to cause the map to slide out and fall
flat upon the floor. Drew was both amazed and happy at this display, since he could now
see an Atlantic Ocean which was partially filled in its central portion by a group of large
islands! They na to be the lost !sles of Atlantis!
Errol sensed his immense delight and floated over beside him to study the fantastic
old chart. The southern edge of the largest of the group ran across between Guiana in
South America and the Guinea coast of West Africa. !t didnt strike Drew that the two
ocean-separated countries were so similarly named, until Errol, who was the better geog-
rapher, remarked the curious fact. However, the names on the map, like its annotations,
were not in any language they had ever seen. But they were even more amazed to see the
An!aI!I Ianmass also included on the same chart! Now, at least, they had seen
something even better than that famous chart of PIII PIs, the ancient piratical Portuguese
navigator, which had been thought to be the first map of the Atlantic to show an actual
Ian coastline of the Antarctica continent. Despite all the efforts of Chas and their other
Edinburgh tutors, they had both held an unshakable view that Atlantis had actually ex-
isted! And now their belief was vindicated!
Errol beckoned the professor to come and look, and he was utterly staggered by
what he saw. The antiquity of the map was far beyond all dispute, and its very location
proved that it was not a hoax.
!ts a crying shame we couldnt bring along a camera!" Drew said. "This would have
really knocked the socks off the anti-Atlantaean lobbyists - whose identities shall remain
anonymous!"
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Yeah!" said Errol, triumphantly, grinning up at Chass horrified spectral face. . Not
to mention the anti-Antarticans, too! !f there was once clear dry land there, dear old Prof,
you can bet your Sweet Bippy there were people, too!"
!f only Ah knew what the hiell a 5w! BIpp) was, ocourse!"said the professor.
But Ah must admit, in all conscience, that Ahve haid mah eyes weel antruly opened
sence Ah ]oined ye on this expedeetion, laddies! Aye!" he mused, Theres nae doobt
aboot et! Ahll hae tae set doon an write a brand new set o geophysical textbooks when
Ah get Haime - That is, if we aIvI a gang haime!" he added, a shade doubtfully.
They continued to study the charts and diagrams, some being geographical, others
astronomical, and yet others being drawings of machinery, architecture and of great
earthworks and similar large-scale public-works"-type undertakings. These latter were of
great dams, canals, and even plans of cities, complete with temples and other public
places. But what stopped them in their tracks were the diagrams they found - thanks to
Avistars uncanny powers of telekinesis - of several pyramids. Plus, to their complete
astonishment, the schematic layout of an entire 5u!n AmIIan 1na city!
There was no doubt as to its identity since many of the details shown, still stood on
top of the Bolivian Andes. The famous Ga!wa) / !n 5un, for example, was a dead
giveaway! !t was a layout for the actual pIps ns!Iu!In of the great city of
Tiahuanaco! But there was n very ma]or difference! Although Lake Titicaca was very
clearly identifiable, there was also a great canal shown, linking it directly to the southeast-
ern Pacific Ocean! And upon closer scrutiny, they were able to make out tiny sketches of
sagIng craft. Both sailing-ships and oared galleys were shown plying between the citys
wharves, across the Lake and along the canal, to the open ocean! Bu! hw uI !nIs D7
The ruins of Tiahuanaco and Lake Titicaca, were !wIv an a naI/ !nusan /! aDv
sa-IvI1
The professor found !nIs particular plan extremely exciting, since he, himself had
once rebelled against the geological establishment in his youth. He had always held the
firm belief that, in the fairly recent past, there had been a vast tectonic upheaval in
eastern South America. One in which the entire Andes mountain-chain had been violently
and swiftly thrust upward out of the level ground to a height of over two miles! All the
signs were there, he had maintained, for any of those among his fellow Geology students
who cared to check the geology of that subcontinent. But many of his more erudite
student colleagues had laughed him to scorn about such an outlandish notion.
Why, they had even taken to calling him AInI / Tn Ans, and asking him if he
expected to g up In !n wII when he graduated? Which event seemed highly un-
likely in view of his lunatic notions! However, to Chass great satisfaction, they had later
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had occasion to reconsider their youthful ridicule when he became a Professor of Geo-
physics at Edinburgh!
Once again, Drew and Errol found the dear old professor to be full of surprises, and
were both again very glad that theyd decided to invite him along!
At last they reluctantly laid aside the ancient maps and charts and accompanied
Avistar through the two remaining chambers of the Hall of Records. One was filled with a
mass of ancient literature and similar material, both in tablet and papyrus forms. But
again they ran into the language-barrier, for little of it was comprehensible to them. Nost
of the cuneiform tablets were imprinted in a language that must have predated the Earli-
est Sumerian, and the same was true for most of the papyrus scrolls, though here and
there, they came upon a few bearing recognizable ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Again
there were a couple of surprises in store.
Drew had been a great follower at one stage of Colonel James Churchward, who had
propounded the ancient Pacific civilization of Nu, and he recognized some of the tablets as
being closely similar to Churchwards finely detailed pen-sketches of Nuvian Naacal tab-
lets. This was a find indeed, since it now tied in the Lost continent of ancient Nu to the
overall scenario! !t was getting better and better as they went along! Then they finally
capped off their finds with some inscribed stone tablets bearing unmistakable pre-Colom-
bian Quechuan, Chimu and !ncan glyphs and icons!
However, it was always possible - nay! - mI !nan IIKI) - that some of those
carved and written text characters and symbols were from an Atlantean or even Antarctican
civilization, long vanished from the face of the earth - or even Dna!n it!
The final chamber of the four was one filled with genuine treasures, almost like that
ascribed in childish legend to Ali Baba! There were great urns and pots overflowing with
myriads of precious stones, pearls and lapis lazuli. Great ancient sandalwood and teak
chests almost desiccated away by the dry-rot of eons of time, were filled with bodily
ornaments.
Crowns, circlets and bracelets, necklaces, corselets and breastplates, of the finest
gold and silver all set richly with magificently huge stones, that sparkled and glittered and
twinkled even in the uncanny light of their spiritish auras! There were also orbs of pure
gold studded with rubies and sapphires and sceptres of silver and gold encrusted with
diamonds and emeralds, rods of beautifully-carved ivory and ebony, bearing silver orna-
ments.
There were also many other baubles, sceptres, staffs and ornaments, covered and
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sheathed in glittering stones and metals that defied identification altogether. Nany other
marvelous ob]ects that were from all corners of the ancient world, lay in heaps upon the
chamber floor or cascaded down from upper shelves and boxes like waterfalls of wonder-
ful wealth.
!t was indeed a most awe-inspiring sight, but it was also a terrible one. How much
human suffering and death had paid for these trinkets, thought Drew, who knew some-
thing of the acquisition of great wealth from his own fathers history. How many thou-
sands of slaves had perished miserably deep in the Earth hewing out these stones, in the
great emerald pits of South East Asia, South America and the deep diamond mines of
Africa. And how many elephants had surrendered their tusks in horrible butchering death,
so that the Chinese ivory-carvers could ply their cunning crafts, transforming them into
these beautiful ivory ornaments and inlays?
They were all very relieved when Avistar asked if they had now seen their fill.
Within moments they were back down in the great tunnel causeway again, this time
heading southwest far beneath the great Sahara desert. !t had once been Lake Tritonis,
an ancient inland sea, named for Atlantis sea-god, Triton until the great King Osiris of
Nediterra eventually drained it and turned it into the granary of the world. That had been
long before Egypt came into existence, when it was still a great thousand-mile chasm
reaching far back from the Nediterranean valley to the giant waterfall at Aswan. The Nile
had been the 5!)x then, a shadowy stream that ran along the chasms deep gloomy floor.
Then suddenly they had reached a new stopping-place. This time they were far
beneath the bed of the mighty Atlantic, in a region of broken rock that had once been the
largest and last island of the Atlantean Empire. Now it had been reduced to little more
than a mud-sealed labyrinth of gloomy caverns and passageways, and its sole remaining
inhabitants were the last descendants of the CnIIIn / BIIaI, a Satanic race who held
the Archfiend - whose !nI Name they bore - to be their god and ruler! Avistar told them
to be on their guard and to bear their vril power before them like a blazing sword in their
minds for as long as they should remain in this place.
As they approached, the five aventurers headed by Avistar, were met by people who
seemed to be ordinary human men, although of giant stature as they still were them-
selves - not having yet reverted to their natural human proportions - so it was as Shambhallan
entities that they appeared and were presented by Avistar to the Atlanteans. However,
Drew suddenly realized with no small misgivings, that they were not only being sn as
solid flesh and blood persons, by these Sons of Belial, but were also being !Ia! as such.
This could only mean that their new hosts were spIII! n!I!Is !nmsIvs, and further-
more, by definition of their creed, vII spirits at that! They were therefore no less
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demonic entities than those creatures they had encountered when first they had ventured
beneath the Undara volcano!
Drew imagined all the more strongly that blazing sword of vril power burning like a
perpetual brand upon the forefront of his mind, and his thought was relayed to his com-
panions who did likewise. They were conducted along to the palace" of their current
leader who styled himself Set", after one of the many names of Satan.
The palace, was now little more than a ]umbled mountain of giant stones, buried
below the seabed. But it had once been Poseidons great island-temple at the very heart
of Poseidionis, its capital city, when Atlantis had stood proud, bold and beautiful between
the Old world and the New. !t had been utterly destroyed when the final catastrophe had
rocked and shattered the island, and caused it to sink far beneath the rolling billows of the
ocean
But inside, it was still a veritable palace of great luxury, muted light and opulence,
draped all round and about with the finest silks, satins and brocades. King Set himself was
the very model of an affable and generous host to them, and offered them fine foods and
wine - which, in view of their all being entities of spIII!, were as insubstantial as they were
themselves! However, since their were all upon the same vibrational plane of being, all
the n)uI things around them seemed real and solid enough to them, including the
marvelous food and drink. The palace was filled with the wonderful soft and soothing
music of pan-pipes, which sounded like the gentle soughing of an evening breeze through
scented pine groves. Therefore, they followed Avistars lead and en]oyed the bounteous
feast spread before them.
However, the five remained closely on their guard. Drew, who had long since mas-
tered the ability to channel his thoughts only to those he wished to sense them, told his
comrades to keep their vril shields around their minds, for these were highly dangerous
surroundings and their hosts were deadly enemies of all who trusted the Great Creative
Spirit. They knew that they must not betray their true identities under any circumstances
Set questioned them all as to their homeland of Shamballah, which he claimed to
have visited upon numerous occasions. But Drew realized he was merely dissembling
with them. And all the while he spoke to them, they could sense scores of other prying
minds probing at their defences in an effort to discover their true nature and mission. But
as soon as those other minds came in contact with the fire of the vril power they were
emanating, they withdrew swiftly as if burned by a flame.
Neanwhile Set told them something of the history of Atlantis. How it had grown
from a mere pleasant island of peace and rest for Poseidon, god of the sea, and his queen
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Amphitrite, into a great empire. He told them how Atlantis, under the rule of Poseidons
ten sons who became its ten kings, had rapidly become the greatest mercantile centre the
world had ever known, and how its ten kings had also become the rulers over many
nations, so that it soon became a mighty empire. As such, it quickly provoked the hatred
of lesser empires and had warred against them all. !t thus became necessary, he said, to
dispense with their former belief in gentility and benevolence and present a sterner, more
unforgiving face to the world. BIIal had offered them his aid in this. So had been born
their present order, Tn 5ns / BIIaI.
Belial, he said, was a ]ust and fair god, who understood the more fundamental
needs of men and took good care of those who chose to follow him. They had lacked for
nothing since, and had even survived the final great catastrophe had devastated and
drowned their island home. Set had saved them, and now Kp! them safe and provided
for, against that time, which was soon to come, when he would once more raise Atlantis
up above the waves. Then Atlantis would have her revenge against her enemies. They
still retained a vast armory of the dreadful atomic and other fearsome weaponry they had
used so successfully against the Ramans, Lemurians and others, and the world would
very presently learn to dread Atlantis again.
Eventually, Avistar, who managed to politely and suavely decline their hosts wel-
come to stay over for a while and en]oy their hospitality, pleaded urgent business that
required their presence in another part of the world. Then they were rather grudgingly
escorted back out of the palace and set upon their road once more.
As they left, Avistar contacted them all through his private thought channel, not to
drop their guard until they were very well clear of Sets sunken kingdom.
He is a devil, and their god is Satan!" he said, ! warn you that if he gains the
faintest sensory hint of our true selves, his demons will be upon us like the true Hounds of
Hell that they are! They are s!III stalking us at a distance, but they will soon tire if we do
not converse among ourselves! Thus, friends, remain silent, and maintain your guard
until ! tell you that it is safe!"
The five friends needed no second warning, and they suppressed all external
thoughts and conversation for several hours. The unmitigated, deadly evil had shone
forth out of Set like a blazing red beacon into all of their spirits!
However, it was not long before Avistar halted, and after carefully attuning his
psychic senses to their highest degree, he declared that their pursuers had given up
stalking them and had returned home to their dreary ruin of a home.
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They have turned back and must be far out of range by now." he told them, !t is
well for us that we were not in the flesh when we encountered those devils. For whilst
they have comparatively little real spiritual strength in themselves, they can call upon the
full might of the Evil One, who was once Lucifer, and even !, with my vril power, might not
be strong enough to withstand nIs dark strength, even for a short period of time. !t is well
to remember that he still possesses the original power that he was created with and only
the Great Creator Spirit can deprive him of that."
Why?" asked Drew. What would have happened to us if wed been in our normal
fleshly state? Would they have captured us and made slaves of us, or something?"
Oh, they would have captured us, make no mistake about it!" Avistar replied. And
very soon afterwards they would have KIII an a!n us, too! A feast in the spirit is not
very nourishing for flesh and blood creatures. For despite their spiritual masquerade,
such they still remain. They are like their master, Satan, seeking whom they may de-
vour"! Pity the lone stranger who passes the entrance to their evil nest!"
Wheere are we haeding the noo?" asked Chas. Ahd ]udge frae wheere weve
come this far, that we must be under the coast o Sooth Amairica by noo! Ah woulnae hae
thocht there was much o the ancient world in this continent!"
And why would you think that, Charles?" asked Avistar. The history of this conti-
nent goes back much further than your own, so far as human population is concerned!
Have you never heard of the great Nuvian Empire of Ra-Nu which once ruled over the
Pacific and all the lands around it? !t was already an ancient empire when Atlantis was still
merely a group of deserted islands. !t is from the empire of Ra-Nu that many of the
ancient peoples of Earth first came! Especially the people who did so many mighty works
in this southern subcontinent of the Americas. !t was they who carried out much of the
tunnelling work which you see about us now!"
Here Errol ]oined in the discussion. Yeah! ! recall reading something about how the
!ncas or the Chimu dug a thousand-mile tunnel all the way along beneath the Andes! !ts
s!III there according to what ! read on the !nternet. But they musta done it after the
Andes rose, or itd be all smashed up and collapsed by now!"
Why so?" asked Avistar. The Andes were upthrust in n mpI! section! Any
tunnels that ran beneath them would have been elevated with the entire range - as you
are aDu! ! IsvI! We are n!IIng into that selfsame section as ! speak! !t is true
that, since the uplift, some parts of the tunnel have been damaged and can be accessed
from the surface now, but, for the most part, it remains intact and can still be used. !t wIII
be used a great deal more if your future mission succeeds!
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Nost of what ! have shown you thus far has to do with your mission, so that you
may speak of these matters with full personal knowledge and authority as to the truth of
their existence! Nany on Earth today, already Knw an DIIv in all of the things )u
have learned, but they have not sn these things with their own eyes as )u have, so
they lack that final sense of inner conviction with which to convince others! !t is like
asking someone to believe in the Great Creative Spirit. Nany have the faith to accept
Gods Existence without speaking to someone who has seen Him, others cannot, or wIII
n!, believe in God or anything else without the evidence of their own eyes, or of the eyes
of those whom they know they can !Ius!! This will be )uI role in the Sages plan. To
present all you have been shown and taught, with all the visual and tangible support we
can provide, and to Ins!III !na! !Ius!!
We could have done it by other means, of course. By mass-n)pnsIs, for example,
or even by staging a great invasion of the surface world with our craft, and /IIng the
Outer Dwellers to do our will! But we have watched many of your fictitious television
broadcast series and films, and we have seen how your people might react to such a
scenario. Therefore, since it is not our chosen way to use force in this manner, and
because its use would immediately foment rebellion among your people, we choose in-
stead to appeal to their reasonable nature and common sense.
However, we are not so naive as to believe that your leaders and your military
chiefs will accept such a common sense approach without a struggle. They have far too
much to lose in power, prestige and wealth. Nor do we expect that all ordinary men and
women will believe that our motives are purely altruistic ones - aimed solely at the pres-
ervation of your race and your world. They have been duped too many times by the
cunning tricks of your own leaders and politicians!
Nor do the films and television plays ! have mentioned, help us much, since most of
the intelligent people of your world, have become mentally indoctrinated to xp! con-
spiracies, lies and cover-ups from your rulers. The great popularity of such conspiracy-
based tales of fiction, reflects this to an amazing degree! Nor can we blame them for
taking this view, ]udging from the many great secrets that n!Inu to be hidden from the
ordinary men and women of your world by its leaders!"
Here Avistar, suddenly stopped speaking. ! will leave it there now and beg your
forgiveness," he said, for ! realize that am preaching to the converted!"
His listeners collectively told him that there was no need for any apology, for all he
had said had clearly come from the heart. !t was heartening indeed to listen to someone
who actually cared what became of the world and all it contained! Their own great
leaders seldom evinced this sort of deep care and concern, beyond what concerned !nII
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wn immediate survival and wellbeing!
But now they were underneath the Andes mountain range and heading due south.
The tunnel still remained much the same, both in form and in antiquity, but there were
few places to visit along its length in this region. True, there were many enormous
caverns along the way, but they were deserted. None showed any signs of occupation
although two or three had been occupied at some time in the past.
There was one that contained a vast hoard of golden artifacts and treasure. But
Avistar said that these things had been secreted there by the !ncas during the invasion
and cruel dominion of their country. The white intruders had inflicted a corrupt form of
despotic Christianity" and tyranny on the people of that continent.. They had murdered,
burned, raped and pillaged their way across the land, stealing all the gold and gems they
could find in the names of their kings and their Holy Nother Church.
They also eventually came upon another enormous and almost circular cavern some-
where beneath a section much further south along the mighty Andes range.
This was almost a replica of the great mountain-top city of Nachu Picchu! !t pos-
sessed the same style of buildings and terraced crop fields, as well as the same type of
central plaza. But instead of being built in a rocky saddle between high mountains, this
subterranean city was built aIun a massive rock Iumn which supported the lofty arched
roof. of the vast cavern, like a gigantic stalagmitefstalactite combined together. The
cavern walls curved downward at a steeply-sloping angle into the floor, creating a hillside
effect which was also terraced into the same curious crop-fields. There were small ham-
lets of the same well-built stone houses as at Nachu Picchu, but the terraced fields were
the most intriguing feature of the cave-city, which was lit by the same ethereal light they
had found in the others beneath Tibet.
Errol said it had never struck him before, but the terraced paddocks of Nachu Picchu
were very reminiscent of those found in the Far East, where they were generally used as
rice-paddies! He wondered if there might be a connection between this !nca form of
agriculture in mountainous terrain and that found in the Orient?
Here Drew mentioned Churchwards theories about Nu having been the cultural
source of many others that later appeared around the globe. No doubt, he said, since Nu
had been a highly volcanic land, or lands, its people had early taken to terracing the sides
of the volcanoes in between eruptions. This would have been a clever way to gain far
more fertile soil area than they otherwise might have had. The long and narrow continen-
tal strips of land that comprised most of Nu wouldnt have been so fertile in their flatter
regions, since there would have been many thick lava fields. The actual sides of the
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volcanoes would have weathered much faster into fertile soil. A study of Pacific volcanic
islands revealed that this was still true today!
Drawing closer to inspect the actual habitations, they were astonished to see that
there were many people living there, and going about their day-to-day business. There
was no doubt that this was a peaceable agricultural society, and they saw many typically
South American animals, like llamas, vicunas and alpacas that had been domesticated for
their beautiful fur, which made such excellent wool. They were also being used as milking
beasts, and - unlike their Tibetan vegetarian counterparts encountered earlier - their
Quechan !nca owners also prized them greatly for their excellent ma!!
This revolted Avistar who had been raised as a vegetarian. ! shall never understand
what it is that makes your Outer Race treat your fellow mammals and birds in such a
terrible fashion! ! gather, Drew, that in your own land you raise millions of cows and
sheep solely for their meat and their pelts. !s this not so? ! have heard that great
slaughtering-places exist there, in which the blood of these unfortunate beasts runs al-
most none-stop. Ughh! !t is too hideous to contemplate!" He shuddered in horror at the
very thought.
Apart from a pleasant river valley that encircled the central sloping mound of rock
around the great central column of the cavern, there was not much more to observe, so
they finally decided it was time to move on. However, they had to force themselves to
avI going down the tunnels many side-alleys and offshoots to left and right, for they
might have spent forever studying similar caverns. So they stuck to the main tunnel, not
knowing where it might eventually lead them.
Thus they traveled down the length of South America, finding many great empty
caverns, but no occupants other than bats, birds, reptiles and insects, until at last they
came to the great tunnels end near the continents most Southerly tip. From there,
Avistar now guided them, via Cape Horn through several connecting submarine tunnels
and passages under Drakes Passage and the Scotia Sea, then beneath the Weddell Sea,
to the great ice-capped continent of Antarctica. Their landfall, a mile or more beneath the
continents heavily ice-overburdened rocky surface was in the region which faced directly
toward the South Atlantic Ocean, one known as Queen Naud Land, but renamed
Neuschwabenland (Nw 5waDIa} by the Germans in 1939.
!t was interesting to note, as Drew once had, that the 5waDIans or 5uDIans, had
been the first original tribe of the AIamannI to settle in what was later to become south-
western Germany when it was still part of the FIanKIsn mpII. They had called it 5waDIa,
and it was the prime centre of what was finally to become GIman)!
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And it was here that they at last found a new and fascinatingly unexpected subter-
ranean country. Their first intimation of its occupation was the discovery of modern-
looking tubular tunnels, which had obviously been machine-bored. The ancient natural
passage or cleft they had been following suddenly debouched into one of these, and for a
moment they were at a loss which direction to follow. Of course, being spirituous entities,
had they so desired, they could have traveled directly through the solid rock. However, it
was far less boring to follow open conduits, since they were more likely to discover signs
of life or occupation there. And so it was when they found themselves suddenly out of the
confines of rocky fissures and out in lighted curving tunnel which - incredibly - possessed
a smooth road surface!
They had followed this steadily-curving tunnel at a gently drifting pace for perhaps
ten minutes before they encountered their first intimation of an underground populace,
when they were overtaken by what looked like a military troop-transporter of some sort.
However, it must have been powered by electricity, since it made little noise apart from a
soft humming sound. But what astonished them most was the sight of the two men in the
front of the vehicle for they wore the winter garb of modern American or NATO troops!
Drew guessed at first that they were probably American Army personnel, for it was
know that they had several military bases upon and under the ice in Antarctica.
Probably forgotten castaways from the old Cold War" days!" quipped Errol.
But Drew wasnt so sure. He had got a glimpse of their military insignia as the
vehicle had passed, and it hadnt looked American to him. The soldiers had been dressed
in fur caps and thick parkas, but these had divisional shoulder-patches on the tops of the
sleeves and Drew had noticed what looked like double-lighting strokes in silver on a black
background as the central motif of the insignia. Having been a keen student of World War
Two history, he had seen this same symbol before. !t was the double S" badge of the
Schutz Staffel - the notorious and feared Nazi SS!
When he told Errol about this notion, Drew was greeted with hoots of ridicule. Oh,
no!" laughed Errol. Not that old baloney about the Nazis escaping to rebuild their Fourth
Reich in the depths of Antarctica again, please! Give me a DIaK, buddy! This continent
has been gone over six ways to Sunday, first by dear old Dickie Byrd himself back 19+6-+7,
with four thousand US Navy personnel, plus ships and planes, and they didnt find a
darned trace of any Kraut installation! An he checked it all out again by plane in 1956!
Since then, the US military set up a couple of permanent bases here, and !n)v been
crawling all over it ever since! Dont tell me that they wouldnt have bumped into the odd
Nazi or two if there were IaII) any here?"
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Not if they were a mII I s unIgIun, mate." retorted Drew, who hated it
when Errol adopted this Knw-1!-AII attitude. They could have been here all the time,
completely undetected. !n any case, for some weird reason, Byrds fellers never set foot
in Queen Naud Land. For pitys sake, Errol, you smart-arsed sod! Yu saw those places
under the Himalayas as well as 1 did! How often dyou reckon !n) be likely to barge
into the local Nepalese or Chinese peasantry? NvI1"
No! ! reckon theres a hell of a lot more than ]ust a grain of truth to all this Nazi
business! Why was there so much Nazi shipping and U-boat traffic spotted down this neck
of the woods back in late 19++ to 19+5, if they werent up to something bloody big? One
things for sure! The ratbags werent looking for bloody nv)s! They already Knw they
were finished in Europe, so they were doing what anybody else would have been doing
under the same circumstances. Setting up a nice little bolt-hole for all their big shots!
!ncluding Hitler and his cobbers!
Sure, they sold out some of the others whod become liabilities, like Goering and all
that bunch who ended up in Nuremberg - but the IaI, /aII-InKum !Iu Aryans headed
south with the Fuhrer and his girlfriend! The rest were all expendable crap!"
Yeah, but what youre forgetting, is that Hitler would be a reaI oId guy by now,
Drew!" said Errol - in a much more conciliatory tone, knowing that hed gotten Drews
dander up. think about it, pal! He was around /I/!)-sIx, way back then in 19+5, so hed
have to be around a nundred and In1rIeen years oId ]ust about now! Hows about
InaI then, old buddy!"
Drew could have cheerfully delivered a swift knuckle sandwich" square upon Errols
ghostly leering mouth at that moment! He was filled right up to the very brim with
frustrated anger, and his aura had begun to take on a rather nasty violets hue!
Errol started gliding backward away from him in growing alarm! Hed never been
walloped by a spirit before - apaI! /Im !n KIn n puI u! / a D!!I - and he wasnt
entirely sure he wanted to stick around discover how it felt!
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However, Avistar had had enough of their arguing for now. He stopped them both
in their tracks by raising the issue that the Nazis had been searching for the VIII power for
many years, and that I/ they had finally found it, Hitlers age would be of no real conse-
quence. He himself was already several hundreds of years old, yet he was, to all intents
and purposes, their own age in all physical and mental regards.
Not that it was only the vril power that could confer such great age either. Ones
dietary, mental, and spiritual regimens could also play a very great part. And in any case,
living in a disease-free region such as the Earths polar zones would further enhance a
humans age. Plus the additional avoidance of direct ultra-violet and the general actinic
rays of the sun, and of much of the smI IaIa!In upon the skin and through the body,
because of living in a deep, subsurface environment, would again add to the overall like-
lihood of a greatly-extended life-span!
Drew recalled hearing that Hitler had been a strict vegetarian, and that he had
surrounded himself with a lot of weird blokes who were into all the old Norse and Aryan
mythology, as well as astrology, and ancient wisdom. Hed even imported Tibetan lamas
and scholars in ancient Hinduism to help him with this. Then there was his worldwide
search for various pretty astounding artifacts, such as the 5paI / Ds!In), the
PnIIspnIs 5!n and the pwI / VIII, as well as those other old mythical things
that blokes like !ndiana Jones" had chased in those movies!
No! !t couldnt be dismissed quite that easily as being a load of old cobblers! The
Nazis had been no slouches at hi-tech engineering, either. Theyd figured out how to
build regular space rockets, thanks to von Braun and his research-scientists at Peenemunde,
and theyd even designed a wIKIng ]et aircraft-engine, well ahead of Frank Whittle.
Theyd already started building their first batch of ]et-engined fighter planes ]ust before
the Russians invaded Berlin and the war finally ended!
!n addition to all this, there was the mysterious business of the alleged experimen-
tation started by the infamous Dr. Josef Nengele in the Nazi concentration-camps into
genetics and cloning. !t had long been one of Hitlers greatest dreams to create a geneti-
cally-true Aryan master-race of Nordic blond, blue-eyed supermen and women - even
though he himself wasnt an Aryan, being a dark-haired and fairly short southern Euro-
pean, as were many of his leading disciples!
!t was here that Drew also recalled that some ]oker named Serrano had reckoned
that the Nazis had found their way into the !nner Earth, and had set up a secret Nazi base
there, to which the Fuhrer escaped in a vimana (I HInu-AI)an /I)Ing sauI} and from
whence he was s!III claimed to be organizing a secret Neo-Nazi resurrection to form a
fourth Reich! However, this Chilean ambassador, Miguel Serrano, had somehow tried
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to intertwine the old Scandinavian mythos with Hindu- Aryan history and the Persian
Sufist-Zoroastrian mythos, not to mention the concept of Thule and the Hyperboreans.
Drew had read a lot about the story of Nazism.
A new Secret Order had emerged in Germany in 1918, long before Hitler had be-
come known or his Nazi Party conceived, whose symbol was Tn BIaK 5un, and which
incorporated yoga, much activity on the psychic plane - including as!IaI-!IavI and the
opening of the TnII ). This was the TnuIe 5oc1eIy, or the BIaK OII, and its
badge was a dagger, the blade of which was wreathed in oak-leaves - and which had a
circled swasI1Ra across its handle, surrounded by rays of light. !t was founded by a rich
German Army officer, Rudolf, Freiherr von Sebottendorf, and Jrg Lanz Von
I1een1eIs). But its primary inspiration came from Jrg Lanz. He was an ex-Cistercian
monk, who wrote prolifically on many inflammatory topics, including his own exegis of the
Bible. Lanz had already founded an order of his own in 1907, Tne Order o1 Tne Aew
TempIars, which, among all its ritual and gnosticism, advocated some extreme racial
ideals, especially and violently slanted against all non-Aryan races, including Jews and
Gypsies, among various others.
Lanz obtained much of his inspiration through studying the theosophical works of
Helena Petronvna Blavatsky. He believed that all non-Aryans, were the product of
bestiality between her Third Race" Lemurians and certain monstrous animals. Because of
this, Lanz advocated that they should be sterilized, castrated, enslaved and then either
used as beasts of burden, incinerated as sacrifices to God, or deported to Nadagascar by
the Aryans.
!t was small wonder that, Adolf Hitler, a corporal whod earned his stripes and two
!ron Crosses before he left the Army, twice wounded, in 1918, should emerge so filled
with hate. A deeply-burning hatred of the Communists whod sabotaged the war-effort,
and the Jewish financiers and arms-dealers whod made billions from the suffering of
German soldiers, fighting and dying on the frontline! He had been humiliated before he
]oined the army by !nII sort. As a teenage youth, hed tried his hand at commercial and
fine art, in which he possessed some talent, only to have his work criticized and sneered
at by Jewish advertising agents and gallery-owners. Thus, he had no reason to love
either Jews or Communists. He was an ideal sub]ect for the idealogy of Lanz, and his
fellow-Thuleans, and must have read their literature, avidly devouring every word! He
must have also noted that seven of the Thule societys leading members were murdered
by communists. Since the society had established a National Socialist Party in 1919 to
accommodate the ordinary workers, Hitler soon became a member. By 1920, after two
changes of title, the National Socialist Workers Party had appointed him as its new presi-
dent
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After Adol f Hi tl er had become known pol i ti cal l y and the NSDAP - or
Aa!InaIsz1aIIsIsn Du!sn AIDI!I PaI!I, now mercifully abbreviated to the Aaz1
ParIy - became established and flourishing, Hitler had made a point of incorporating
many of the parent TnuI 5I!)s ideas and ideology into his own party agenda. This
included the swastika symbol, the naKnKIuz, which he restored to its formal, squared
appearance, as a Hindu - Buddhist emblem of good fortune. He had already written His
own Bible of Nazism, entitled "Mien Kampf (M) 5!IuggI} into which he had poured
all of his long-nursed vitriolic hatreds of many things - besides Semitism and Communism.
He also held a lifelong detestation for many other evils, such as murder, rape,
homosexuality, paedophilia and theft, and any form of cowardice, and he especially de-
spised laziness and work-shy scroungers. His hatred of g)psIs was largely due to the fact
that they were dirty parasites upon the working people of Germany who preferred to live
in squalor and idleness, making their women sell whittled wooden clothes-pegs and tell
fortunes, rather than take regular ]obs themselves.
When the concentration-camps were first established in pre-war Germany. He or-
dained that the motto: Are1I macnI Fre1 (WIK MaKs Yu FI}, be placed above
their entrances. They were at first occupied by criminals, sexual deviants, social misfits
and menaces to society in general. These including many crooked politicians and certain
religious sects considered either anti-Christian or anti-German. Among them were the
Jnvans WI!nsss, a sect regarded as a refuge for cowards, and through which many
had avoided military service in the Great War of 191+-18. !n this religious context, the
Jews were considered CnIIs!-KIIIIs and thus the enemies of all good Christians, German
or otherwise.
Drew recalled all of this and much more as they glided onward - how Himmler and
Hess and various others had connived and wheedled their way into Hitlers hierarchy of
command as he attempted to usher in a brave new Germany Reich" in which true Aryan
supermen would reign supreme, through strength, intelligence and orderliness, and above
all with a cleanliness of blood and genetic traits that would ensure an ideal society in
Germany and those who wished to ]oin her.
Heinrich Himmler had soon worked himself up into a position of great power, and
had established his own army of Nazi supermen, in the 55, the 5nu!z 5!a//I - or
special security squad. They wore black and silver uniforms and their personal badge was
the Deaths Head 5KuII an CIssDns" - a badge designed, together with their funereal
uniform and secret oaths and rituals, to instill fear and obedience into all the populace and
even the regular army, as well as enemies of the Reich
!n due course, together with their sinister brother organization, the GesIapo
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(GenIm 5Iaa!s PoII!zI, whose work was the undercover routing out of spies and all
enemies of the Reich), Himmlers SS and Gestapo now, more or less, took over Germany
completely. Himmler himself had now, in many ways, become the real power behind
Hitlers throne. !n the latter part of the Second world War, the SS Ian Germany. But by
now it was all far too late for Hitler to do anything about the unfolding holocaust he had
thus unleashed. He himself had become a tool in the hands of his henchmen.
His own megalomania had by now over taken him, and he knew little and cared
even less what they were up to behind his back. As far as was known, he had never
entered a concentration camp, and relied entirely upon the carefully doctored reports that
were allowed to filter back to him. He had still followed his dream of a biologically and
genetically pure Nazi Naster-Race even to the end, when the Russian wolves were howl-
ing at the very gates of Berlin itself, and the armies of the Western Allies were opening up
Himmlers hideous death-camps! Even until he and his beloved Eva Braun lay dead by his
own hand in the last redoubt in Berlin!
OI was n7 Had Hitler perhaps already fled, with the cream of his new super-race
before the final curtain fell - leaving a master-actor in his place, who was prepared to
sacrifice himself for the Nazi cause? How many U-boats, reported to have been scuttled
at sea rather than surrender to the Americans and British, had in fact, carried the Fuhrer
and his chosen elite to their new homeland under Antarctica? A homeworld that had been
carefully prepared years in advance, in case the worst happened?
Perhaps the work may have been performed by expendable prisoners from the
camps, or by a dedicated group of loyal German soldiers, determined that their new Reich
and their beloved leader would not perish! Everything seemed to point that way! There
had been a great many strange comings and goings of German surface warships to those
far southern waters, and they would have received a great deal of sympathetic assistance
from several of the South American republics. But how many trips were made by Nazi
suDmaIIns to Antarctica would never be known!
Of course, Drew did not mull over all of this at the time of their arrival. He had
learned it all over years of delving into the !nternet and libraries. But it all came flooding
back into his mind as they followed what was obviously a giant ring-road around some
great central city. Suddenly they realized that another vehicle of some sort was ap-
proaching them from the opposite direction - the way they were travelling.
As it passed, the saw that it was some sort of large luxurious passenger car, this time
one with large windows, and plush seating !t had no wheels, but seemed like the train
they had seen back under the Tibetan plateau to be somehow suspended by an anti-
gravitational effect around two or three feet above the road surface. There was no obvi-
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ous external form of propulsion, unless it was some form of silenced air-]et. Avistar could
not say whether it was magnetically propelled since it was the first time he had seen this
particular vehicle.
However, because of the windows, they were able to clearly see the passengers.
Three wore uniforms not unlike those seen in their earlier sighting, except there were no
fur winter garments, which indicated that the car was heated. They looked like officers,
]udging by their peaked headgear smart tunics and insignia of rank. But Drew was aston-
ished to recognize the black and silver uniforms of the Nazi SS! Or certainly something
very closely akin to it! However, although this was astonishing in itself, it was the passen-
gers who drew their full attention. They looked like Asiatics of some familiar kind, and
Errol murmured the thought: Tibetans!"
Drew at once moved closer for a closer look then, with a thrill of shocked surprise,
he realized that one of the foreigners - who now I closely resemble Tibetan monks or
High Lamas - was looking II!I) a! nIs /a! At first he thought the man must be looking
through him at something that lay behind him. But when the monk urgently grasped the
arms of his companions to draw their attention to him, and they too, stared at him in
amazement, he knew that they could actually s nIm an nIs /IIns!
There was a lot of excitement within the car as the three lamas gesticulated and
shouted excitedly at the officers facing them, ]abbing their fingers toward Drew and Avistar
who had now ]oined him. But it was obvious from the puzzled and alarmed looks on the
officers faces, that they could see nothing.
However the gravity-car suddenly began to slow down, and Drew it occurred to
drew that if these characters could see him, they might conceivably be able to harm him
too, and the others. So he decided it might be a good idea to back off before they
climbed down from the vehicle.
But Avistar was already way ahead of him. He swiftly grasped Drews shoulder and
hauled him far past the vehicle at thought-speed, to ]oin the others who had already fled
away at his hasty word of command.
!t is clear that these men have seen us, Drew," he said. We must all move quickly
away from this sector and until we are at a safe distance, then consider whom they may
be."
Again the whole group shot forward for a couple of miles or more, then they stopped
again. Up ahead, there was some sort of vertically cylindrical cavern in the centre of
which was some form of landing pad, and upon it stood a large dishlike silver craft! The
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place was brilliantly lighted and they could see the figures of white-overalled mechanics
and other staff coming and going in and out of the giant craft carrying metallic crates of
provisions or cargo of some description.
Drew immediately lunged forward, intending to see for himself at close-range what
was happening and to examine the craft. But Avistar again restrained him with a gentle
but firm hand on his shoulder.
No, my friend, before we go looking for further problems, let us pause a moment
and contemplate what ]ust happened back there! Those priestly looking sages are obvi-
ously trained adepts in the occult. No ordinary man can see a spirit purely by chance - not
unless the spirit wishes it to be so. ! presume that you did not consciously seek to draw
their attention, did you?"
Of course, ! didnt!" said Drew, somewhat nettled at the idea. ! ]ust saw these
Tibetan bloody Lamas riding along with a bunch of Nazi officers and ! couldnt believe
what ! was seeing! !d only ]ust a second before been thinking about the Nazis and how
Hitler might."
We all know precisely what you were thinking, Drew!" interrupted Avistar. you
really mus! learn to control the power of your thought-vibrations, my friend, or ! might be
compelled to reduce your vril output a little!" He sighed mentally Then he went on. The
problem is that those adepts are here for some sinister purpose, since even ! could sense
an air of evil and anger about them.
However, the immediate thing we must do is to seek an even deeper level of cover
so that we might be totally invisible to them should we encounter them again. Also. !f
they have raised the alarm that there are astral intruders within this area, there is a strong
possibility that they have some form of radiation or emanation which might in]ure us
spiritually. ! have heard of such devices which can destroy intruding spirits, or at least
seriously harm them!"
Narianne butted in here. Sorry to intrude, Avistar, but did you say s!I) our
spirits? ! thought that spirits an! be destroyed! ! thought only God can do that!"
You are confusing spIII! with souI, Narianne!" said Avistar. !t is correct to believe
that your soul cannot be destroyed - xp! D) !n GIa! CIa!Iv 5pIII! - and even then
only under the most dire of circumstances! But your spirit is another matter entirely! !f
it is destroyed, it cannot return to your body, and thus your body will rapidly die - and
your souI will then immediately have to leave it, and return to Him who made it! He
sighed again. ! can see that ! have been sadly remiss in some areas of my spiritual
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instruction to you all!"
Oh! R1gnI! Noo ! understand!" said Narianne, rather redfaced. Stupid of me! !
somehoo completely forgot aboot the difference between Spirit and Soul! Sorry aboot
that!"
However, this is no time to discuss such classroom matters." continued Avistar. We
must now shield ourselves completely from not only being sn but also from being heard
!Ipa!nIaII) by these adepts. Therefore ! will try to give each of you a boost of vril
power from my own reserves. ! believe ! have enough for a hundred spirits like your-
selves! But remember this well! Once ! have done so, you must immediately strive to learn
to control yourselves mun mI aI/uII). Such an amount is exceedingly dangerous,
especially toward one another. So you must all be extremely careful about containing any
anger or impatience towards each other.
Any sudden flare-up of anger or impatience could do harm to the spirit you are
angered with, and at the least, it might send that spirit straight back to its body! So !
beseech you all to beware and remain at all times on guard against your own tempers!
Do you all understand this?"
He gazed around at them all, and each in turn nodded their comprehension.
very well, then!" said Avistar, briskly. Drew, ! think ! shall begin with )u - espe-
cially since you do tend to let fly a little heavily with your irritation from time to time.
Please try your hardest to curb this tendency from now on. You know what is at stake
here!"
Yair! Sorry for that, Avistar. ! really wIII give it my best shot!" Drew looked peni-
tently at Errol as he said this mentally aloud..
However he thought, privately to his inner self, `Poor old Errol! He always seems to
be the one who cops the bloody stick when ! feel a bit crappy! Not that the cheeky sod
doesnt DI) asK /I I! sometimes, though!"
Avistar proceeded to perform much the same ritual or ceremony that the Sages had
done back in Shamballah. He placed his hands one upon the other on top of Drews head
and muttered the same strange incantation in the curious tongue they had used. Once
again he experienced a sense of euphoria as the additional power flowed into his spiritual
being. Then Avistar, smiled at him, and nodded to Errol, who now took Drews place for a
similar performance. And so it went with all five of them.
After this ritual transference of power had been performed upon them, each of
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them felt - as Drew remarked - like a battery fresh off the recharger! They all felt greatly
uplifted in personal inner spirits as well as in their psychic strength, and they thanked
Avistar profusely. But he waved this aside as a trifle..
! think that we should all now be able to remain invisible and unsensed in the
presence of these adepts now!" he told them all. However, ! beg you all to take care not
to overstep the bounds of common sense, and, wherever possible, avoid taking any un-
necessary risks! We have no actual idea as to ]ust what degree of spiritual power they
might have attained. So until we have some demonstration of their abilities, it will be
better to err on the side of caution.
However, ! doubt if we have anything you fear from them. After all there are six of
us against their two, so if they turn out to be stronger than we as individuals, we can add
our ]oint power to any one of us who comes under any personal attack!
Always remember, in any encounter with danger, that the greatest thing you have to
fear Is FaI I!sI/! !f you encounter an enemy and display your fear before him, he has
already beaten you - because you have /a! )uIsI/! Therefore, carry the battle to
your enemy with the undoubting, I!aIn an suI KnwIg !na! )u nav aIIa)
suI !n vI!I)! !f you can develop that positivity in your mind, you will always be
unstoppable! Oo you eI1eVe me?" he shouted loudly into their minds.
And as one, they all yelled back at him, equally powerfully. YE5!
Errol grinned to himself. Avistar would have made an excellent Narine Drill !nstruc-
tor at Boot Camp! He had only ]ust managed to stop himself from adding 5TR! to his
reply! Drew caught Errols thought and grinned himself. !t was true! Avistar had given
them several powerful pep-talks" already and they had worked like magical charms every
time! None of them had ever felt more confidence in Avistar - or in themselves before
today! They were TAVTACTBIE!
However, Chas had a question for Avistar which struck them all as being very perti-
nent and worth understanding.
Tell me, Avistair.. he began. What haippens tae )IsaII/ when ye gie us all a pairt
of yer own poower? Doesnae that weaken yer own strength in the speeritual sense, a
great deal? Ah mean, its like a blood-donor, surely - a body can only hae sae much in
him, tae begin with, surely?"
Avistar nodded his understanding of the question. Yes, Charles." he replied, To
some extent you are correct, but to follow your own analogy of a DI-nI - which !
comprehend quite well - once ! have donated my spiritual energy - it takes only a short
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period of time before the residual power in my system redoubles itself, ]ust as a mans
donated blood would be replaced in his veins by his bone-marrow cells, within a matter of
a few hours. So it is with the power of spirit! The power of the GIa! 5pIII! pervades the
entire universe all around us, so there is no mystery as to its origin - or its availability! All
we need to know is how to tap into" that source! And it is entire because of our pIsnaI,
psI!Iv xp!a!In of DIng InaIg that it will happen! All it takes is /aI!n an psI!Iv
!nInKIng! There is no trick to it!"
Then he glanced back toward the landing-site. ! think ! have done enough in-
structing for now. Let us find out more about this base! And remember to approach
vI)!nIng with caution!" He stared keenly at Drew as he said this. Then he turned and
shot off toward the brightly lit landing-bay, with the others in hot pursuit.
As they approached the landing-bay they saw now that the great saucerlike craft
was quite huge, much larger than those of the !nner Earth. This Avistar concluded was
probably because it was used largely as a heavy transport vehicle for men or materiel.
Errol took a quick peek inside the great hangarlike building that had been cut out of the
solid rock wall surrounding the wide vertical tubular well of the landing-site. He returned
with a few seconds to report that there were at least another fifteen or twenty similar craft
inside, and that there were a lot of tall Nordic-looking mechanical maintenance personnel
working on and around them.
Quite a fleet," said Drew, if youre contemplating an invasion of the outer surface!
Wonder how many men they have down here?"
Avistar suggested that since it was now nearly 60 years since the base had begun
operation, and if the new race of Nazi supermen and women had been breeding at a
steady rate since then, they could have easily quadrupled their military force by now if not
mI! !f the experimentations of men like Doktor Nengele had proved successful - which
he saw no reason to doubt - multiple births would probably be the norm in this obviously
thriving new colony of purebred Nazi Aryanism.
He pointed out the giant stature of the base personnel working around the craft as
an example. N! a man I wman amng !nm was unI Ign! /! !aII! None of the five
travelers with him, being still of Edenaic stature themselves in the spirit, had actually
noticed that the Nazis were so tall There had clearly been a selective breeding-programme
set in place from the start. No doubt all substandard embryos would have been aborted
and destroyed at a very early stage of gestation.
We must find the city itself and look into its laboratory and administrative com-
plexes!" he said. !n order for my masters great renovation plan to work, we do not need
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the added complication of a sudden invasion of new highly-techological and spitiually
powerful Nazis trying to set up their Fourth Reich in the midst of it all! This would surely
result in a total Armageddon and doubtless the destruction of the Earth altogether!
Nake no mistake about it! !f Hitler were to stage a miraculous" return tomorrow,
nwvI I he may be, there would be an instantaneous roar of welcome from all totali-
tarian nations around the world! Probably also including most of the ma]or Western
powers! They have sought for a truly strong leader for generations now, and have grown
utterly tired of being led by weak and self-seeking little party politicians! The days of the
strong and dedicated world leaders ended with the close of the Second World War.
Think of figures such as Churchill, Roosevelt, Nenzies, Chiang Kai Shek and Gandhi!
Aye - and even Hitler and Stalin! Their would-be followers upon the world stage have
merely lurched ineffectually from one crisis to another, ever since. None has measured up
to their mark since. 1s I! nI s7 The world population today cries out for firm and
fearless leadership by men - or women - who care nothing for their own personal image,
prestige, wealth or aggrandizement - but only for their nation and the wellbeing of the
entire world!"
Avistar stopped there. Drew, Errol and the professor had to restrain themselves
from applauding enthusiastically. The girls, who had little time for politics, were not so
sure.
However, ! must not allow my own strong feelings to interfere with our present
exercise!" said Avistar. Let us now seek the central hub of this Nazi world!"
Now, instead of following the perimeter road, which must have been miles on its
circumference, they rose up high into the air so that they might gain a more distant view
of the huge cavern. From a height of several hundred feet, they could see the layout of
this vast inverted bowl-shaped place. The principal difference between this and all the
other subterranean states they had seen, was that this one was larger and entirely man-
made. !t was difficult to contemplate the vast amount of work that had gone into hollow-
ing out such a gargantuan artificial cavern!
One thing was abundantly clear. These Neo-Nazis had access to earth and rock-
moving equipment as yet unknown to the outside world.
A quick inspection of the surface of the rocky bowl showed that it had been exposed
to either great heat or a disruptive power sufficient to melt rock to a glassy smooth finish.
Drew and Errol both agreed that it must have been done with the use of some form of cold
laser beam of huge size! !f heat had been used, the atmosphere within the forming
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cavern would have been totally unbearable to the workers - unless it had been done by
robotic mechanisms of some kind. However, all that was beside the point. Suffice to say
that it had been achieved - in a wondrous fashion!
Looking down from their high vantage-point ]ust below the apex of the caverns
glassy-smooth roof, they beheld a marvelous feat of construction. The central complex of
buildings had been built in the form of a swas!IKa, its arms being something close to two
hundred feet in width! This gave the symbolic building an outside ground-plan a !nu-
san /! on a side! !t was also several stories high, so it must have contained a huge
number of rooms and assembly or lecture halls.
!n addition to this however, the central structure was surrounded by a circle of
terraced buildings which no doubt served as barracks, accomodation flats and other ancilliary
utilities for those who worked inside the main centre. The whole effect, despite its evil
purpose was quite marvelous to behold - especially from such a grand vantage point!
Beyond the circular terrace of secondary accommodation lay great meadow and wood-
lands where large farms were scattered hither and thither, and the fields were stocked
with all sorts of domestic livestock. However, as Avistar was relieved to note, there were
no beef-cattle or pigs to be seen.
Obviously, Hitlers vegetarianism had become mandatory for all in his new Reich-
kingdom. The only concession to the human need for protein was met by the large dairy-
produce plants, in which both cow and goats milk were processed into butter, cheese and
yoghurt, and the long egg-producing, humanely-contrived battery-hen buildings ad]acent
to these farms. Apart from these two staple sources of protein, no other animal products
were used, except for shorn wool, feathers and animal hide leather from deceased cattle
and horses. There were horses aplenty, upon which many folk rode around the meadows
and woods purely for recreation and exercise. The woods themselves were also filled with
small animals such as squirrels, badgers, and all their ilk, whilst the open meadowlands
were roamed by small herds of deer, and also the home of rabbits, hares and ground-birds
like pheasants and partridges.
Large lakes provided homes for assorted freshwater fish and amphibians as well as
abodes for waterfowl of many kinds. Swans, geese and ducks patrolled their waters, and
other birds of all sorts filled the trees and the air with movement and song. !n addition,
power-pumped and circulated waterfalls and streams with earthen banks gave sanctuary
to water-animals such as otters and their like. The whole effect was that of a typical area
of Bavarian countryside, and this effect was much enhanced by an artificial surrounding of
cleverly man-made cliffs and mountainsides which rose all around the perimeter of the
great circular cavern.
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The light source of all this was not of VIII origin but of some powerful incandescent
lighting system similar to that used at night sporting venues around the world. There
were many such large units or batteries of lights evenly spaced all around the caverns
great concave roof. Whether these was powered by electricity or some other new form of
radiant energy was not immediately clear, but they put forth a goodly amount of radiant
heat, thus creating a very pleasant, early summer atmosphere.
The air itself was wonderfully fresh and invigorating since a fine balance had been
achieved between animal life and vegetation so that the interchange of oxygen and car-
bon dioxide was maintained at an even rate. !t was also circulated in some way which
permitted new cold air to be mingled into it from the frigid polar surface. This also created
some mild breezy air-movement that blew in a gentle wind all around the interior of the
vast dome.
All in all, the six unseen visitors could only look down and admire all that they saw.
The only ]arring note in the entire layout was that once loved but now hated naKnKIuz
shape of the countrys main central headquarters. For it was a un!I), even if artificially
created and not much larger than Washington DC.
Drew thought it an engineering marvel, regardless of its purpose and the people
who had built it and inhabited it. As he told the others - you could say what you liked, but
one thing the Germans had always excelled at was civil engineering on the large scale,
and especially since they had achieved this without the use of such agencies as VIII power,
was, in his view at least, a great feather in their collective cap!
Now it was time to look inside the central building. Within the flash of a thought,
they were standing otside one of the four main entrances, gazing up at the building
exterior. !t was constructed of stone blocks and looked very imposing, even if in the
austere Nodern Teutonic style of building that had been such a feature of Hitlers pre-war
modernized Germany.
Chas recalled seeing a television series about Nazi Germany and Hitlers blueprint for
his proposed new post-war capital of GImanIa. The drawings and plans that had been
shown there, which had been simply practical reworkings of Hitlers own idealized sketched
concepts, were reflected here, and showed the same cleanly modernistic but utilitarian
lines.
There were guards standing beside the tall bronze doors in smart uniforms of black
and silver, with white shirts and black ties, and wearing the same gleaming steel helmets,
white gloves and shining black leather ]ackboots that had so characterized Himmlers elite
55 troops. The same red armband with the black swastika on a white disk was also still
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very much a part of their uniform. However, the men themselves were handsome Nordic
giants, over eight feet in height, with blond hair, blue eyes and regular features.
!t looked as though Nengeles experimentations into InIng had paid off hand-
somely, since both sentries were identical in every feature! Drew had noticed, earlier in
his unfortunate peek inside the gravity-car, that the three officers had all looked very
similar, and now he found himself looking at those same identical features again, in the
two sentries! !t must be bloody hard to keep track of whose who in such an army!" he
thought to himself. However, Avistar was now signalling them forward through the firmly-
closed great bronze doors.
!nside they found themselves hovering in a long passageway which would have
shamed many a plush Parisian hotel in its beautifully appointed decor and furnishings.
The high walls were richly covered with plush embossed wallpaper, and great paintings
depicting epic scenes from Scandinavian mythology and classic Wagnerian themes were
displayed along its length. Wagnerian music filled the air with its powerful and soul-
inspiring ma]esty.
Everything was on the grand scale. !f the intention was to impress the newcomer,
it was highly successful. All six of the unseen tourists were awed by the sheer magnifi-
cence of the great lobby. To one side there was a reception desk, behind which three
extremely pretty but gigantically tall blond and blue-eyed young women were stationed.
At the moment two were busy working at computers whilst a third was reaching down a
thick file from a set of shelves against the wall. They were laughing and chatting happily
away in German to one another.
Errol, ever the prankster, shot across to the desk and made a pretence of ringing the
bell and signing the visitors book, that lay open on the counter.
Unfortunately, he had forgotten that his vril power had been recently greatly en-
hanced by Avistar, so his pI!n of ringing the big gleaming brass bell on the counter-
top became a IaII!), and its clangour took the girls an !nmsIvs very much by sur-
prise! Fortunately none of the girls saw the bell rise up as Errol rang it, so they assumed
it to be some ]oke played by a colleague. Two of them even came around the counter to
see who was hiding there and were most astonished when they found there was no one in
sight.
Avistar treated Errol to one of his deprecating glares, and Drew shook his head in
mock despair, making a tut-tutting motion with his lips at Errol. Errol himself had turned
a pallid pink with embarrassment. However, they all pressed forward down the long
lobby, passing many large mahogany doors en route. Hazel and Narianne saw one that
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was partly open and peeped around its edge. The room was a large office with the same
excellent appointments they had seen along the lobby. There were several fine antique
French period-pieces of furniture, and low coffee tables, bearing very recent magazines
!n one corner, however there was a huge mahogany executives desk complete with all
the fine ob]ects usually found on such a desk.
The most striking of these was a magnificent solid golden statuette of an eagle. !ts
wings were outspread and its talons rested upon a large gold replica of the Earth, and
around its neck was a finely-wrought oak-leaf wreath bearing a silver swastika. !n the
centre of the large leather-cornered blotter pad, lay a great morocco-bound book with
gilded edges. !mpressed into its front was the gold-leaf image of a similar golden eagle
holding a swastika in its talons, beneath which in Teutonic script was the legend MIn
Kamp/.
They hurried excitedly back to tell the men that theyd found Hitlers private study,
but, after a cursory glance inside, Drew came back and said it looked more like some sort
of flashy waiting-room for v!P visitors.
They continued with their glide along the lobby. Eventually they noticed a hallway
off to one side, marked Au/zug", which turned out to be an elevator lobby with a richly-
carpeted staircase running up its side. There were two or three uniformed personnel
waiting by the lifts. So Avistar ]erked his thumb upward. !f there was any action at all
here in this wing of the swastika shaped building, it would more likely be upon the upper
floors. Nost important" humans seemed to prefer to make their lofty bowers in the
higher reaches of such buildings, and Hitler was renowned for his love of his famous
agIs Ns! chalet home at Berchtesgarten, that commanded such a magnificent out-
look over the Austrian Alps. They came to a halt on the second floor from the top, and
looked around cautiously.
Although he was fairly certain that their shielding from visibility by the occult Tibet-
ans should now be impenetrable. Avistar took no unnecessary chances He told them all
to keep a careful lookout for any sign of these occultists, as he was as yet uncertain of the
full strength of their powers. !t would be time enough to find out when they encoutered
them face to face, as they surely must eventually. !n the meantime he was more inter-
ested in seeing if Hitler still lived!
Toward the centre of this section of offices, there seemed to be much coming and
going of uniformed officials armed with files and documents, in and out of one specific
doorway. Perhaps this might give them some indication of where the meeting - should
one be taking place - might be located? !t was here that Chas offered his services as an
interpreter of what was being said in this office.
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Everyone was quite astonished by this. None of them, especially Drew and Errol had
any idea that he spoke anything other than ngIIsn - and !na! with a heavy Scots accent!
However, he said he had learned it during his youth as an undergraduate, since he had
shared a room with a student from Stuttgart in Germany! His German lessons had been in
repayment for teaching the young German English" - which, alas, the lad spoke ever
afterwards in a thick Lowland Scottish brogue!
The professor was therefore sent by Avistar into the outer office to listen in and see
if anyone mentioned the Fuhrer at all - and if so, where the meeting was taking place.
Chas at once glided away to listen in. !n the meantime the rest of them all went off in
different directions to see what they could find out elsewhere. !f they spotted anything
they were to signal Avistar and the others at once.
Drew and Errol elected to take a quick spin along the uppermost floor - and almost
gave the whole game away right there and then! This floor was divided up into v!P
apartments, and the second one they glanced into, contained the two Tibetans whom
Drew had seen close-up in the gravity-car! Fortunately they were both awake, which
meant that neither was astrally eavesdropping upon their group.
This was a particular risk that Avistar had been greatly concerned about. !f he or
any of his charges were discovered in this way, the Tibetans might well be able summon
up some powerful assistance from those who followed the Left Hand Path of the astral
plane! Which would mean they would have a real and fearsome battle upon their hands!
!t was a risk he wasnt prepared to take.
However, for the moment at least, the two occulists were busily engaged in leafing
through a pile of documents and conversing with each other rather deeply in their own
language! So Drew quickly signalled Errol and they slipped quietly into the apartment.
Neither of the Tibetans paid them the slightest attention, so they knew now that their
astral shields were working satisfactorily. However, being unaware of their language, they
could glean nothing from them, nor could the learn anything from the documents they
were so earnestly discussing, for these were typed in German!
Then it occurred to Drew that Avistar would surely understand Tibetan, so he sent
Errol to advise him of their discovery.
Within a heartbeat, Avistar was at his side and listening closely to the two
monksdiscussion. Eventually he signalled to Drew that someone was approaching the
apartment. There came a buzz at the front door and one of the monks went to answer it.
A high-ranking SS officer was waiting there and he had a file in his hands.
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He was invited inside and the officer, after clicking his heels together and inclining
his head, followed him in. There he greeted the second Nonk in a similar manner and
then opened the file. !t contained a single document, which Drew, who was now peering
over the officers shoulder saw bore at its head the Nazi emblem of an Eagle clutching a
wreathed swastika. The message was hand-written in German - but what was far more
important, was the signature at the bottom of the script. One word only, but it made all
their efforts worthwhile! The quickly-written, strong and incisively-slashed, slanting word
was easily decipherable. !t read: H1IIer !
The officer handed the note to the two monks, who now read it for themselves.
Then they discussed it together briefly in Tibetan, and after a brief deliberation and
a verbal exchange in German with the officer, they both signed the note themselves and
haded it back to him. He them placed it reverentially back into its red file, again mur-
mured something to them in German, bowed stiffly again at the neck, clicked his boot
heels smartly together, and made his way out, closing their door behind him.
Quickly, Drew!" said Avistar," We must not lose him now! He is taking back their
reply to his Fhrer!"
Errol arrived ]ust at that point intending to accompany them, but Avistar charged
him to remain in the monksapartment and advise him immediately should either of them
decide to turn in for the night. For much to their amazement, nIgn! was indeed beginning
to fall upon this world, and lights beginning to appear in many windows in other wings of
the swastika-shaped building - as they also did in the encircling terraces of apartments.
They stared in astonishment for a moment, until it dawned upon Drew that the
many huge banks of lights above them on the cavern ceiling were gradually being Imm
by means of some automatic rheostat. There was clearly a sound reason for this. Not
only did it save enormously on power, which those vastly powerful batteries of lights must
have burned up at a terrific rate but also it brought a natural cycle of day and night to all
the vegetation and wildlife inside the cavern world.
However, their quarry was now a hundred yards away from them, striding out smartly
and purposefully along the wide corridor toward another arm of the building. Swiftly they
caught up with him as he turned a corner in the passage to enter another arm. Here he
turned suddenly toward the wall spoke something into a hidden microphone and a section
of the wall slid suddenly back like a door. He stepped through the aperture and his two
spectral followers only ]ust had time to flash through behind him before the aperture
sealed itself again. !t was obviously operated by a voice-recognition relay and a laser-
beam. Then they realized in surprise that they had entered a secret Iva!I - and it was
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snIng at a rapid rate!
Just how far it fell they had no way of knowing, but ]udging by the duration of its fall,
even at a moderately fast speed, it descended as far Dna!n the ground level of the
building as they had previously been aDv it! Then the elevator glided softly to a halt.
The elevators stainless steel doors slid silently apart and the officer stepped out into a
short corridor. Avistar and Drew followed in his wake as he headed toward another steel
door. Here he operated a videophone set in the corridor wall beside it, and after he spoke
a couple of words into it, the door opened revealing a heavy, panelled wooden door. He
tapped on this and, upon hearing the word Here1n! opened the door and stepped
inside, unwittingly permitting his unseen companions to slip into the room beyond.
!t was not a single room but a large and lavishly-appointed apartment with many
paintings upon those areas of wall that were not covered from floor to ceiling by crammed
bookshelves. Amazingly, the big lounge room they had entered, even had an old fash-
ioned fireplace where a bright log fire crackled merrily in the grate!
On either side of this were large, comfortable easy chairs covered in floral patterned
chintz, and they we were surprised to see that the room also sported a large bay window
which apparently looked out upon a vista of forested mountains!
Even the sky above the mountains was a rich blue interspersed with fleecy white
clouds which actually II/! nonestop across the magnificent landscape. Drew concluded
that there was obviously a rigged-up pro]ector set outside the false bay windows, since it
was already night-time in the external caverns environment, but the visual effect of a
sunny afternoon or early evening shining in through the window was totally realistic and
inviting. However, it was not this which immediately attracted his attention. !t was the
occupant of the room, who was ]ust turning around from the fireplace where he had been
ad]usting one of the burning logs.
He was an elderly man of medium height and build with snowy white hair and a
moustache to match. His alert eyes were a faded gray-green hue, and his skin pale and
slightly coarse in texture. His nose was strong and large, whilst his mouth was firm and
his ]aw determined. As he straightened up, unconsciously brushing back a straying lock of
white hair from his brow, he showed an erect military bearing, even though is shoulders
had become rounded and his legs somewhat bowed with age.
At first glance, Drew assumed him to be a man in his mid to late seventies. But his
thought rapidly changed when the SS colonel after closing the door behind him, snapped
his ]ackbooted heels together, and gave him a smart Nazi salute. Guten Abend, mein
Fhrer!" he said. Then he inclined his head and handed the file over to the old man.
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Drew now realized that this old man could be none other than AI/ HI!II himself,
but with his ageing process somehow miraculously halted, or at least, radically slowed! !t
was almost impossible to take in the fact that he was looking at a man one hundred and
thirteen years old! But of course, AvIs!aI nImsI/ was svIaI !Ims !na! ag, and he only
looked to be in his !wn!Is!
Now Hitler was speaking to the officer, and Drew, alas, knew no German. but
suddenly he heard Cnass voice inside his mind. He was translating their conversation!
Drew glanced across at Avistar, who smiled and nodded sagely, then cupped a hand to his
ear, plainly directing Drew to listen to their translated words
!s all in order, then, Weber?" asked the Fhrer, opening the file and noting with
satisfaction that the Tibetans had signed the document it contained. Ja, mein Fhrer,
"said the colonel, they took only a few moments to arrive at a decision once they had
read your generous terms!" The Fhrer nodded, obviously pleased with the result of
whatever deal had been struck. Now all we have to do is to convince the others to ]oin
with us in this great undertaking! Let these adepts rest awhile longer then, bring them to
meet me in the morning, so that we can begin formulating our first plan of campaign. !n
the meantime, ! presume that the emissaries of the other party" have already been sent
for?"
Weber nodded. Ja, Fhrer! the ship is already on its way back as we speak!"
But Hitler glanced furtively around the room as if listening for something. Or are
they perhaps aIIa) nI?" he murmured. ! seem to sense a pIsn."
He paused for a long moment, during which Drew and Avistar stared at each other
blankly. Had they been rumbled? But Avistar shook his head. Drew could sense no other
astral presence in their immediate vicinity, so he accepted that Hitler had ]ust imagined
some hidden presence. Hadnt he been claimed to be psychotic?
However, Hitler, seeming to dismiss his feeling of unease, then went on to tell the
colonel to advise him the moment the mysterious others" had arrived, and that, since
there was little to be done now until the next a), he could now go off duty.
At that the colonel saluted him, saying: Dankeschn, mein Fhrer! Gute Nacht!"
He then bowed his head, turned smartly and left the room.
But as Avistar seemed to be in no rush to leave the apartment, Drew sensed that
their business was not yet finished. So they remained hovering invisibly close to the
ceiling whilst the aged Fhrer paced around the room for a while, wrapped in deep thought.
But finally, he seemed to come to some sort of decision. He then retired, first to his
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bathroom and then to his bedroom. They followed him there, Drew half-expecting to
discover an aged Eva Braun already sleeping in the great bed. But evidently she must
have passed on long before, for upon Hitlers bedside table was a silver framed photo-
graph of his one faithful love. He murmured a few words softly to the picture, then gently
kissed it . Then, after taking some pills from a bottle and swallowing them down with
water, he clicked off the light, rolled over onto his side, and composed himself for slumber.
How long they maintained their vigil, Drew had no idea, but he was suddenly alerted
when he saw a tiny point of purplish light begin to appear in the opposite corner of the
inky-black room. !t grew steadily larger until it became a man-sized amorphous mass of
purple and pinkish light, which slowly formed itself into a vaguely compact shape. Drew
glanced anxiously at Avistar, wondering if they should challenge this intruding entity or
leave before they were spotted. But Avistar signed him to remain still and calm. Drew
remembered then that they were filled to overflowing with VIII power which meant they
were InvInIDI! By now the shape had finally begun to resolve itself into a much more
clearly defined form. !t was that of a tall, horned Ip!IIIan! The same kind of intelligent
fiendish monster he had first encountered in the magma chamber under the volcano at
Undara!
However, for some astonishing reason, the demonic entity failed to see them or
sense their presence in the dark bedroom, even though Drew himself could clearly see
Avistar, beside him. !t was an amazing thought to realize it was possible to become
invisible to other entities on the astral plane! However, his mind was quickly brought back
to the situation at hand as the demon now leaned over Hitlers sleeping body and began
murmuring into his ear - or his mind - some sort of spell or incantation in a familiar, sibilant
tongue.
The Fhrers body suddenly gave a violent, lurching ]erk as if struck by a bolt of
lightning, but the thing still went on in its dreary hissing monotone. Again the body on
the bed shook, this time so violently as to throw itself up off clean off the mattress! Drew
felt that he had to do something , but as he began to launch himself forward, Avistars
hand held him still.
Another point of light had suddenly appeared and it now swelled rapidly and brightly
into a reddish compact form. Within seconds it had become recognizable. !t was one of
the Tibetan monks they had seen earlier! Now the demonic reptilian had seen him too,
and turned instantly, with an evil snarl of rage to attack the intruder, its aura now a deep
violet shade. Then followed an astral battle of hissing and snarling entities such as even
Drew had never seen before!
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The two enraged astral entities circled each other around the room, neither appar-
ently aware of their audience, looking for an opening to attack the other. !t appeared to
the onlookers, now ]oined by Errol, who had seen one of the monks leave their apartment
in spirit form, that the antagonists seemed to be evenly matched.
They finally came to grips with each other, and the Tibetan who had learned many
martial defensive arts in his life as a monk, gripped the reptilian in a powerful deathlock
with one arm held twisted back around its body and forced the fiends hideous ]aws
upward and backwards, whilst the reptilian tried to claw his face and throat. Usually this
grip meant that the victim had to either turn aside to release his arm or suffer a broken
neck.
However these were both astral adepts, and the reptilian called upon his shape-
shifting powers to change his genetic reptilian form to that of a great snake and thus was
able to easily slither free of the Tibetans grip. Then he flung several coils of his new
reptilian shape around the Lamaic monk, who, having noted the strategem the reptilian
was adopting, followed suit. He at once changed his own form to that of a large !ndian
mongoose and sank his sharp fangs into the snakes neck behind its head.
For a moment they remained thus - the snake striving to tighten its fat coils around
the supple slim body of the mongoose whose fangs were almost severing its head. Finally,
in desperation, it shape-shifted again into another form of reptile. This time a small tricer-
atops dinosaur with a thick armour-plated collar of bone and gristle - and two long sharp
horns. These it strove to thrust into the body of the mongoose. But the nimble mongoose
was able to run circles around the clumsy dinosaur, although it wasnt able to inflict any
harm upon it.
!t seemed like a stalemate, until suddenly the Tibetan switched his mongoose guise
to that of a large scorpion, and, springing upon the triceratops back, it ran up beneath the
bony neck-shield to the sheltered point where it protrude from its tough scaly hide. That
was where the unprotected softer skin lay in vulnerable folds. Here it in]ected its venom,
and the great beast shrieked in agony and rage, threshing its head this way and that as
the scorpion stung it over and over repeatedly. The reptilian, realizing that if he remained
a dinosaur he would die, managed ]ust in time to shift into the form of an insectivorous
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lizard, which as the scorpion fell away from its previous fading triceratops shape, scuttled
in quickly to bite off its poisonous sting.
But again the Tibetan proved himself equal to the challenge and changed into a
large Himalayan painted-stork with a large and powerful stabbing beak, with which he
lunged viciously at the lizard, severely in]uring it in several places.
By now however, the reptilian realizing that he was rapidly losing the contest, and
suddenly he resumed his normal hideous shape and tried to grab the stork by its long
throat. Only to find himself faced with a large Himalayan bear whose fore paws were
armed with great flailing talons! The great bear clutched the reptilian into its famous hug
of death, and at last with a wail of horror, the crushed reptilian slowly faded from its grasp
and vanished painfully away into a very faint mauve speck of light before finally disappear-
ing altogether. Drew and Errol almost cheered!
The honours were most convincingly to the Tibetan. The Lamaist monk then made
a careful inspection of the still-slumbering Fhrers body, to ensure that he still lived, and
had suffered no visible harm. At length satisfied, he himself then swiftly diminished into
a speck of reddish light, and also vanished.
Drew was about to speak but Avistar held up a cautionary finger to his ghostly lips
whilst he carefully inspected the bedroom and then the rest of the apartment. Only when
he had made absolutely certain there were no other astral intruders lurking in the wings,
awaiting their chance to appear, did he finally speak.
What did you think of that for a mighty battle, my friends? Did you ever see its like?
! recall when ! was still relatively youthful, some of the younger sages of Edena used to
hold such contests of astral power. But of course, they were never to the death - nor
were they even permitted to in]ure each other! But it was still very entertaining to watch.
Nany of those contests would go on for several time-priods at a stretch! Alas, it was
eventually stopped, when a player was inadvertently stepped upon by his opponent!"
Ny Word!" cried Drew, who was still fired up by the terrific spectacle. !ts some-
thing ! would never have thought of in a million years! Do you reckon the rest of us could
do that if we had to, Avistar?"
Avistar shook his head, a trifle sadly. Unfortunately, you would need much school-
ing in making the correct reflex actions, my aggressive young friend! One wrong shape-
change could spell your instant doom! And beside that, you would have to learn to out-
guess your opponents next shift!"
Here Errol put in his two cents worth. !t struck me as being very like a game we
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humans play PapI, 5IssIs, 5!n. !ts a very similar principle, and you do it with your
hands, like this -" Here he and Drew gave Avistar a quick display of the way the game was
played.
But Avistars attention was elsewhere. Why would the reptilian wish to harm this
Hitler?" He wondered aloud in his mind. Surely if Hitler is - I was - an evil tyrant, such
as your Earth history reports, the reptilians would welcome him readily as their ally?" He
stroked his chin in perpexity. There seems to be little doubt that these Lama adepts have
thrown in their lot with him and become his body-guards, else why would they comes so
swiftly to his rescue?"
Perhaps hes planning to stage a big CmDaK mebbe a FI/!n PIn, and needs
these guys to show him the way?" suggested Errol. Or Nebbe hes the An!InIIs! that the
Bible talks about, and these Tibetans are going to be his prophets."
!t is a pssIDIII!), Errol. Avistar conceded, But what puIps would it serve to re-
populate an already over-populated planet? Even with such fine specimens of humanity
as these magnificent people he appears to have developed here? !t is a puzzle to which
! must devote much thought! However, possibly we shall find the answer when this
meeting takes place tomorrow between the Fhrer and the Tibetans - and also with those
O!nIs of whom they spoke!
We shall have to await developments! However, in the meantime, it might be
worth our while to take our ease a little and inspect this interesting world. Even the spirit
is often in great need of some leisure-time and amusement. Come now, let us leave this
dull place and ]oin the others!"
They soon found the two girls and Chas in another part of the great building, inside
a great museum hall that was filled with all sorts of Nazi memorabilia, such as banners,
uniform-clad models from all branches of the Nazi military forces and Hitler Youth Groups,
weapons, campaign maps, and so forth. Piped music was playing in the background which
featured famous Nazi martial music and popular marching songs such as LIII MaIIn
and the HIs! WssI 5ng, not to mention others from World War One like the anthem,
Du!snIan UDI AIIs, Wan! am PnIn and the marching song, W MaIn AgaIns!
ngIan.
There were even real Germany WW1 and WW2 fighter aircraft suspended from the
ceiling beams, together with a v1 flying-bomb and a v2 rocket. A collection of fairly large-
scale models of Lufwaffe bombers - and also the great silver Nazi Hindenburg" airship,
were also suspended above their heads. The walls were plastered with german Army
banners and flags from both wars, as well as blow-ups of German wartime propaganda
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posters. Together with large exploded colour diagrams of German tanks, military vehicles
and heavy artillery.
Errol said there were plenty of memorabilia shops ]ust like this museum in practically
every city back home, that specifically catered for the neo-Nazi element - s wna! Is
was I//In!7 They all grinned at his cynicism, but acknowledged that it was certainly
painfully true of most Western nations!
! daresay they have another museum like this full of real U-boats and pocket-
battleships close at hand, eh?" put in Drew. Or dont the old KIIgsmaIIn get a look-in
on all this?"
But Chas told him there was a naval museum ]ust across the other side of the
corridor. Hed already had a look at that. But they couldnae hauld a candle tae the sairt
o warships we built up on Clydeside!" he added, with a smile of Scottish pride.
!t was at this point that Drew noticed that Avistar was missing, and he wondered if
hed gone back to check up on the Fhrer, since it was ]ust breaking daylight" outside the
windows, as the automatically-controlled dimmer-switches slowly brought the huge light-
arrays back up to full power. He decided to follow him.
!n the flick of an eyelid he was back in Hitlers still-darkened bedroom where he
found Avistar hovering high in a corner. The Avallahan placed a cautionary finger to his
lips and waved Drew to his side. ! have a suspicion that he will waken shortly, but do not
be surprised at what you see!" he murmured. ! have a feeling that this man possesses
our own secret power!" then he suddenly tensed as a shape began to materialize above
the sleeping figure.
!t was the astral form of the Fhrer, but as a much younger and far taller man, in a
blond Nordic guise that was quite at odds with the shorter, dark haired Hitler image Drew
had always carried in his mind. The only thing that was still recognizable was something
about his sternly forbidding features. His astral form was also remarkable in that it
emitted a very powerfully radiative aura, similar to their own - a clear sign that his spiritual
energy had been greatly enhanced with VIII power!
This now presented a problem for them both for it meant that Hitlers astral form
would be quite powerful enough to be able to see them, should his attention wander from
his re-entry into his body. Avistar had no real idea of ]ust how far the man had developed
spiritually. He might even have attained a HIgn MagIs!I degree for ought he knew! this
would make Hitler as powerful in psychic strength - if not more so - than nImsI/ ! He
had obviously been upon some astral mission and it now became clear that the two
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Tibetans were standing in as the guardians of his body whilst he was out of it. !t was at
this point in Avistars inner deliberations that he became suddenly aware that Hitlers
astral form had spotted himself and Drew.
The luminously-glowing figure paused in its re-entry, and straightened up. Wer
sind Sie und wie Sie erhielten in hier? Sind Sie, zum nach mir hier aususzpionieren oder
ich zu tten? !ch verlange eine Antwort sofort, oder es ist das schlechtere fur Sie!" hissed
the Fhrer angrily into their minds. (Wn aI )u, an nw I )u g! In! nI7 AI
)u nI ! sp) n m I ! KIII m7 1 man an ImmIa! answI I I! wIII D !n wIs
/I )u1}
Wir haben keine Absicht der Ttung Sie, sehr geehrter!" protested Avistar, Wir
sind blo Laufstcke auf der astral Flache, die nach !hrer ausgezeichneten Gemeinschaft
stolperte, und habe einfach siebewundert! Jedoch gab es frhere andere heir, wer
versuchte, sie zu schadigen, aber er wurde von !rhem Tibetan Bediensteten beseitigt!"
(W nav n In!n!In / KIIIIng )u, aI sII1 W aI mII) !IavIIs n !n as!IaI pIan
wn nav nan upn )uI xIIn! mmunI!), an nav sImpI) Dn amIIIng I!1
HwvI, !nI was an!nI nI aIIII wn !II ! naIm )u, Du! n was IImIna! D)
)uI TID!an sIvan!1}
The Fuhrers astral smiled then. Ach! 1n vIs!n! Sind see dann von
irgendeinemanderem Realm des Universums? Sie sehen nicht wie ein Nasse-Sein zu mir
aus! Ein Einwohner eines anderen Naes der Platz-Zeit, mglicherweise? Obgleich !hr
Begleiter ahneit einem Nenschen in bestimmtem Respekt." (On1 nw T undersIand1
AI )u !nn /Im sm !nI IaIm / !n UnIvIs7 Yu n! IK IIK an aI!n-DIng
! m1 An InnaDI!an! / an!nI ImnsIn / spa-!Im, pInaps7 AI!nugn )uI m-
panIn s IsmDI a numan In I!aIn Isp!s.}
However, Avistar, after a glance at Drews bewildered spectral face suddenly realized
that he wasnt comprehending a single word of their conversation. He looked back at
Hitlers astral. Nein freund war ein Australischer Nensch," he said, aber ist ]etzt einer
meines Rasse. Gleichwhol er nicht Deutsches versteht, also mglicherweise wurden Sie
hinsichlich des Gespraches auf Englisch fr seinen Nutzen so gut sein, bitte.?" (M) /IIn
was an Aus!IaIIan numan, Du! Is nw n / m) Ia. HwvI, n s n! unIs!an
GIman, s pInaps )u wuI D s g as ! spaK In ngIIsn /I nIs Dn/I!, pIas7}
But of course!" said the other, slapping a ghostly hand in his old theatrical manner
to his brow. How totally thoughtless of me to forget that the whole world is n! )!
speaking an !nInKIng in German! Forgive me, my young friend! So! You are Australian,
)a? ! have much admiration for your countrymen as gu! sIa!n, even if InIszIpIInI!1
They gave my poor old friend Rommel - how is it? - a g Iun /I nIs mn), during the
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NIa/IIKa Kampagn!" He laughed, heartily, then he said, "tell me, mIn /Iun, what
does the world say of me now? Do they still believe ! was - sIDsmI.er - "sui-
cided" in Berlin? Or do they perhaps think ! died an aI!mann many years ago hiding in
some rat-hole in 5uIamIIKa? True, we have many good friends there, but ! would not
- how do you say? - D 1ound dead !nI!" Again he laughed heartily at his own wit.
Then he went on, But as you see ! am noI dead, yet! OI, ]a, but Da - Ae1n!"
then he turned to Avistar. ! take it that we share the same power, yes? ! was finally
rewarded by my Tibetan friends after many years by the gift of VIII from their secret city!
!t was their inspiration which caused me to create this world you see about you, so that
our ideals should not perish from the world!"
His eyes took on a fanatical greenish gleam. Do not think that what today passes
for Aryanism is of any interest or use to us here! We have passed far beyond such piffling
nonsense as racism and nationalistic madness. The world is full of II!Isn ummKp/n
and hooligan fanatics who strut and masquerade under the sacred naKnKIuz banner!
Those insulting scum will receive their reward when the Fn1Ie Re1cn appears! For
believe me, my friends, it w1II appearl And T w1II sI1II e nere Io see InaI day!
Drew was interested to note how the Fuhrers English had rapidly improved as he
had warmed to his theme. !t was obviously still the tired old dream of world domination
by the Aryan race, presumably with the Earth entirely and exclusively populated by blond,
Aryan clones like those they had already encountered up in the cavern-world up above.
He could hardly imagine a scenario that would be more boring and tedious!
However, he took extreme care not to let even the faintest glimmer of his private
disdainful thoughts escape his mind. !t could easily spell their doom!
Then Hitler seemed to realize that his fervour had got the better of him, and that he
might have said too much. ! must ask you to leave me now." he said, quietly, for my
colleagues will soon be here to consult with me. However, it has been a great pleasure to
meet you, and ! trust that we might meet again someday soon, under much better cir-
cumstances! But you did not tell me where )uI wn world lies, my friend! !s it in this
System or galaxy? Or is it perhaps in another dimension?"
Avistar told the Fhrer that his world was one that Hitler would never have heard of
(I a! Ias! n sIIn!I) np n!1} But it seemed a safe assumption, since Hitler had
created this intracrustal Nazi world, instead of attempting to infiltrate and invade the
!nner Earth! He might possible have heard mention of it, at some time through one of his
underlings, but had dismissed it as stuff and nonsense.
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He and Drew then bade the Fuhrer a polite Au/ WIIsnn saying that they
would soon be heading for their home-world, but would visit him again someday, when he
had fulfilled his destiny. Then they left, allowing Hitler to re-enter his sleeping body. But
they did not go far. They hovered in the upstairs passageway where the secret elevator
door was concealed, to watch for further events to unfold.
As they did so, Avistar spoke mentally using a very close and low vibration to Drew
about all they had ]ust witnessed and learned from Hitlers own ghostly lips.
Drew was still in something of a state of shock at all that had transpired, but as he
recovered his scattered senses, Avistar ran over some of the astonishing things he had
learned during his talk with the Fuhrer. Or rather the Fhrers own rantings!
Certainly, from what he himself had learned of this weird and delusional tyrant,
Avistar knew that this mentally-twisted, yet curiously powerful man had entertained some
weird and wonderful concepts and quests during his rise to power, but the later and much
more down-to-earth issues of conducting a life-or-death war on several fronts simulta-
neously had forced him to become extremely focussed upon practical issues, and casting
aside all his occult, gnostic leanings and pursuits.
No more had he dreamt about the famous Spear of Destiny". Allegedly the selfsame
one with which a merciful Roman legionary had stabbed the crucified Christ beneath the
rib-cage to hasten his death and end his torment.. Apparently at one time Hitler had sent
out a group of men upon a secret mission to search for this same talisman. !t was
reputed to give magical powers to its owner, including immunity from being slain so long
as he held it in his possession. But they had returned empty-handed
Nor had he continued for long to pursue the quest of the Holy Grail, the selfsame
cup from which Christ had drunk with his disciples on the night preceding his arrest. This
too, was supposed to gift its holder with amazing powers, but his men had failed abyssmally
to discover its whereabouts.
!t had been the same with several other great and fabulous relics and other sacred
and holy artifacts.
However, he I most evidently appear to have been successful in one ma]or quest
at least. The search for the long rumoured and legendary VIII power! There was no
doubt that the aging fhrer had somehow been invested with the same power that He and
Drew and the other four of their group now possessed
However, Avistar had realized that, vn In !nIs, although he had clearly acquired
the power strongly upon a personal level - no doubt via his Tibetan friends -if such they
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truly were - he had s!III n! obtained the /uII limitless use of VIII. Otherwise his current
cavern-world would already be completely powered and lighted by it, and possession of
such power would surely have already made him a great world-tyrant all over again, long
ago!
Had it been in his hands during the period of the ridiculous Cold War" stalemate
between the superpowers of Capitalism and Communism, he could have seized the initia-
tive then, and finished them both in one surprise stroke! The Americans and the Russians
had never even envisioned an) pssIDIII!) of a comparablly strong Third World Power in
those days, so it would have been all over in one single, swift lightning-stroke of VIII
against both simultaneously!
Neither side had possessed the political courage or lunatic fanticism needed to strike
the first blow. So a third, unexpected and unimagined power, equipped with a totally
unknown super-weapon - one which would have made the atomic bomb a superceded
museum-piece overnight, could have cleared the board of both at the same time, and
thus taken over the entire world. The fact that Hitler had not done so, showed the pitiful
limit of his power.
However, since they were here, it might be of interest to remain a little longer and
see what sort of mad scheme was being hatched between himself, the Tibetans and the
mysterious O!nIs who were due to arrive that same day. Drew agreed. He said he
always hated reading a good yarn only to find that the last couple of pages had been torn
out! The big thing would be how to get into the subterranean appartment to witness this
meeting, given Hitlers - and no doubt his occult Tibetans- vIII-enhanced powers of astral
cognizance! They had both witnessed how quickly the Tibetan had detected the presence
of the reptilian demon.
But Avistar had thought of a plan. He reminded Drew of the battle between the two
in which they had shifted shapes to avoid and to attack each other. His scheme was simply
that they should become small creatures, such as mice or beetles, or even flies, and creep
into the apartment together with the visitors! !n this way, they would not be noticed in
the mixed-up confusion of spiritual entities that would all be meeting together for the first
time. Nobody would know wns spirit was putting out wnIn signal, and they would
certainly never think of searching every nook and cranny in his aparment - especially for
such trifling things as insects or tiny rodents!
Drew immediately stuck his hand up and said: Bags me being !n /I)! ! always
wished ! couldve been a /I) n !n waII at one of those sort of secret conspiracy confer-
ences, mate!"
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Avistar smiled. Just as long as one of the Tibetans doesnt turn up as a spII or
armed with a /I)-swa!!I!" He thought for a moment, then finally decided that he would
go along as a cockroach.
This appalled Drew, who had always had an almost pathological detestation of the
creatures. How will you get in?" he asked,"At least ! can simply fly into the elevator as
they enter it, but dont you think you might easily get stomped on among all the feet?"
No!" laughed Avistar. ! will be aIII In upon someones briefcase! They seem to
be virtually mandatory accessories at aII human conferences ]udging from what ! have
seen! And Hitler will most likely have long forgotten the briefcase-bomb that was involved
in the attempt on his life at the strategic war-meeting of his General Chiefs of Staff back in
the mid 19+0s!"
Having decided this, they first of all checked out the whereabouts of the others. this
would be important to know in the event of a possible discovery and the consequent need
for a sudden concerted flight from the cavern-land of Germania!
They soon found the rest of their party out in the woods toward the landing-site,
en]oying the scenery and the sight and sound of the animals and birds, not to mention the
soft and gentle rustling of the albeit aI!I/IIaI breeze in the leafy boughs. !t was nonethe-
less pleasant for all that, and reminded them in many different ways of the countryside of
their widespread homelands. Narianne had found a way to contact some of the animals
telepathically, and as she sat in the lush wildflower bedecked grass and surrounded by the
inquitive creatures, Drew was reminded of a scene from the Disney masterpiece
movie:5nw WnI! an !n 5vn DwaI/s", and he once again found himself wishing hed
brought along a camera - impossible as it sounded!.
However, Avistar had read Drews unguarded random thought, and he told Drew
that he already carried a ps)nI amIa around with him! All he need to do was to
practice using it!
All five Outer Earthers now stared at Avistar after this astonishing remark.
Nw he tells us!" cried Errol, in anguish on behalf of them all. You wouldnt believe
the scores of times ! kicked myself for that same oversight, Avistar! Well," he went on, !
guess youd better show us how to use this new magic trick, buddy!"
Avistar stared at them all in astonishment. You cannot mean that you do not record
all the sights and scenes you have treasured inside your minds, surely! All men and
similar creatures possess this power! !t is not a !IIK, Errol, it is a natural gift, that is
connected to your memory! Do you not have a saying among your people regarding a
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person having a pn!gIapI mmI)? Yes! ! see you understand! Well, this ability is
capable of being refined to a considerable degree - and most especially to those, such as
)uIsIvs, whose memories have been greatly enhanced by the power of VIII!" He
looked around at their incredulously amazed faces.
Why do you uD! me?" he asked. Can you not recall some important scene in
your own memory which comes back to you in all its visual clarity? Have you never done
a sketch or a drawing from memory of some face or treasured vision from the past? And
what about you unconscious dream-visions" during sleep? All of these things are filed
away on the hard drive" of your mental computer" - the only problem is that until now
you have had no means of pro]ecting these things u! from your mind in a suitable visual
form that !nIs can perceive! But now you already have that ability, thanks to the VIII
power you possess!
Perhaps you will remind me of this when we get back to Shamballah, and ! will
demonstrate it for you on the holographic pro]ector - II!I) /Im )uI mIns1
Dinna fash yersailf aboot !na!!" said Chas. Ahll probably pester ye !a a!n aboot
it!"
Everyone smiled at this, knowing how greatly taken the professor had been with the
holographic pro]ector since Avistar had first shown him how to use it..
But Drews mind was elsewhere. He was filled with impatience to get to their main
mission, and then return home to Glengarry. !t had suddenly struck him that hed been
kept so mentally preoccupied over the past weeks - or was it mn!ns, now? - with all the
astonishing events that had occurred to them, that he hadnt even spared a thought for
Bob and Joan and their family - nIs wn family! A wave of guilt swept over him. `Wna! a
Das!aI )u aI, DIw MaDnnII1 Fan) /Ig!!Ing )uI /IKs1
Avistar heard this thought with deafening clarity, as did all the others too. He was at
Drews side in a flash. Perhaps you would like to go back and see them, Drew? ! think we
should be able to manage whilst you are gone."
But Drew was determined to see what transpired later when the meeting took place
between Hitler and his colleagues. No, Avistar. !ll see it through now, thanks!" he
mentated.! guess !m as intrigued as you are about what might develop!"
Then Narianne interrupted them both. Hoos aboot ! whizz back to Glengarry and
check up on things, Drew! ! might even be able to get into Joans mind and assure her
that were all doing OK! Hoo would that suit you?"
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Avistar answered for them both. That would be an excellent idea, Narianne! Per-
haps Hazel might like to accompany you? There is nothing you can do here now."
Despite her being with Errol, Hazel accepted the idea gladly. She was getting bored
with this Nazi place anyhow, and Errol would probably soon be involved with whatever
they were up to so - 5uI1 Wny noI1
Within seconds, the astral forms of the two young women had soared away at
thought-speed into the limitless realm of space-time, leaving the four men to their own
devices. Avistar had told them to go directly to the !nner Earth after their errand of
mercy, where they would meet them in the Shamballah guest-house. He didnt think that
they would need to remain in this place for much longer. !t was really a case of satisfying
themselves that Hitlers wild plans for a FI/!n PIn would n! collide with their own final
great mission!
Now!" he said to his three remaining helpers, Let us hurry across to the landing-
pad, for ! sense that another ship is about to arrive and ! desire very much to take a close
look at its passngIs! We may all receive a great surprise!"
Within an instant, they were hovering within the great vertically cylindrical com-
pound. A tractorlike hover-vehicle was manoeuvring the large silvery saucerlike craft into
a wide but low bay cut into the shafts side. Errol glanced up and saw that there were
many such apertures one above the other in vertical rows up the shaft wall.
They mightnt have the vril," he thought, but if all those bays are occupied, they
must have one hell of a Space-Lufwaffe!"
Just thinking the same thing, mate!" telepathed Drew silently. ! reckon if these
blokes ever get their hands on the /uII range of VIII power, the whole worlds in for an
almighty shakeup! Can you imagine it, Errol! Just think of what might have happened in
early 19+5 if Der Fhrer had managed to finish developed an atom-bomb before the Allies
got to Berlin! Hes capable of doing an)!nIng to realize his dream!"
we must ensure that such a thing
never happens, my friends!" put in Avistar. This is why ! am interested in this conference
and its participants! Where has everyone gone?"
!t was then that they notice that all
the ground-crew personnel had vanished from the pad area completely.
Ahl Lookl" breathed Avistar, point-
ing upwards. Here comes the craft now! See! The outer airlock is opening! Our hosts
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new visitors have arrived!"
Far above their heads, at the outer end of the long shaft, a great camera-like iris was
opening swiftly, and they caught a momentary distant glimpse of cold blue sky, which was
soon largely eclipsed by a dark circular disc. !t fell a little way then paused, whilst the
upper iris closed again, and another, transparent one, made up of crystalline leaves now
began to open up, a little way further down the tube. Soon the incoming craft was able to
descend to the bottom and come to rest upon the pad, as the inner iris closed again.
Now the tall ground-crew men emerged again in their white coveralls, gloves and
breathing-helmets. This was evidently a precaution against any contamination the ship
might have picked up on its ]ourney. They quickly checked it over with a variety of
metered scanners. Then, apparently satisfied that the ship was clear, they stood back
whilst a ramp x!Iu out of the ships side and a portion of its metallic polished silvery
hull magically opened up into a large doorway. Drew was amazed. No door swung open,
nor did any panel slide aside. The hull simply gIw an opening!
The ships crewmen emerged wearing airtight helmets, and they in turn tested the
air with hand-held scanners. The results must have been good for they now removed
their helmets - to reveal themselves as the same species of tall, Aryan blond clones as the
ground crew. The ship was evidently one of Germanias own fleet.
But now it was time for the visitors to appear. A wheel-less carlike vehicle, much like
the one theyd seen carrying the Tibetan monks soon after their own arrival, now drew up
to the ships ramp and the visitors were quickly hustled down the ramp into the vehicle,
wearing large hooded cloaks of some kind. Sufficient, at any rate, to prevent the four
from getting a look at the wearers. This really maddened Drew, and, as the car pulled
swiftly away from the ramp and headed down onto the ring-road, he shot away, ignoring
Avistars mental cries, to catch up with it.
But when he caught up with it the passengers were now relaxing and had begun to
remove their warm robes and hoods due to the warm interior of the car. One look was all
Drew needed to tell him the worst! The four visiting envoys were all the same species of
tall, horned hideous reptilians they had met during their ]ourney through the Earths crust
- and of which n sun spImn had already tried to kill or in]ure the Fhrers comatose
body the previous night!
Fortunately, none of them appeared to sense his presence outside the windows of
the car. This may have been due to his enhanced spiritual state of invisiblity. Or because
they were all too busily engaged in removing their cumbersome gear to bother looking
out at the passing scene. Drew didnt know or care. Just as long as he managed to avoid
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detection! Embolded by this, he continued to ignore Avistars private-line" pleadings to
let them alone, and focussed his mind instead upon their thoughts. !t was evident that
they boded no good for either Hitler or his plans, since they were engaged in an exchange
of ribald ]ibes and ]ests at his expense. From the general gist of their contemptuous
remarks, however, Drew was soon able to piece together their purpose. !t was simply to
utilize Hitler and his technology for their own agenda, which was clearly aimed at Nankind
in general.
But this was not exactly news to him, as hed had occasion to discover this for
himself - as had his companions also, during their horrendous trek through the shell of the
Earth! The main thing was to prevent them from enlisting his unwitting help. As he
watched them cackling and rolling around in hideous mirth, a sudden great wave of anger
began to grow within him! These were the ones who were Satans own direct servants.
!t was they who had submitted them to sundry horrors and dangers inside the black
tunnels within the Earth. They must not be allowed to recruit Hitler into their dastardly
plots! Not as long as ne had the wIII and the pwI to stop them! To HII with them -
and aII !nII vIIus IIK1 G DIas! !nm AII ! puIpI DIazs1
To hell with Avistars finer feelings too - n, DIw, would take affirmative action
himself - IIgn! nw! This meeting must never take place! He stopped in his flight
alongside the grav-car and allowed his mind-spirit power to go into overdrive. Rapidly he
felt himself swelling up like a giant blimp of pulsating energy. Faintly, beyond the growing
thunder of his overloading inner senses, he heard Avistars final faint cry of NOOOooooo-
!" Then he aimed with his mind through his eyes and fired his entire gigantically built-up
overload of raw VIII power at the receding vehicle.
Then came a totally soundless but highy sensory WHOOOOMPHH !!
!t was like launching a hundred of Hitlers own v2 rockets from close-range. The
vehicle simply disintegrated into a blinding mass of brilliant flashing white light-energy
and vanished entirely, atoms and all, off the face of the Earth! There was no tremendous
roar of deafening sound. No reverberating blast-wave racing around the great cavern.
Just one single blinding flash of intolerable white light and total instantaneous annhihilation
of the vehicle, its driver and its four passengers!
Suddenly, Drews senses came rushing back into the vacuum that his white-hot rage
had created inside his mind. WnaI Ine neII nad ne done! Avistar would have his balls
for breakfast over this! Yet he felt a tremendous sense of completion and calmness
descend upon his mind, and he realized that it didnt matter anymore! !t was done -
Sortedl
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But what Drew was not to know ]ust then, was that aII of the !nI reptilian kin of
these primary four he had ]ust eliminated, had also suddenly vanished with them from all
of their filthy tunnels, caverns and secret nests throughout the entire crust of the Earth!
Their n!II spIs had been annihilated with them at one blow!
Now Drew suddenly found himself faced by Avistar and his two companions. They
all stared at him in speechless amazement. !n the background he could hear klaxons and
sirens howling and wailing, and the white-clad figures of the ground- crew racing in all
directions, without any notion of what to do. Chaos was mounting in the distant circle of
buildings too, as tall figures poured forth from exits everywhere, thinking they had sud-
denly been invaded or attacked. But there was nothing to see! Before long grav-cars
were racing around the perimeter filled with armed troops and shouting officers. But it
was all to no avail. How could one fight an invisible enemy? 1/, in fact, there was one?
They hovered together in mental silence and watched the frantic scene. !t was like
watching an overturned ants-nest. Next thing, thought Drew, theyll be running out with
millions of cloned embryos of their as-yet unborn super race, trying to find a safe place for
them! !t was all so terribly pathetic. But it was also very satisfying, too!
Eventually, when his own seething annoyance had died down, Avistar spoke to Drew,
addressing him quietly and evenly.
! feel there is little point in my telling you that what you have done here flies in the
face of everything that we in Edena represent! What you ]ust did, Drew, was nothing
other than simple muII! Whether it was ]ust the murder of those four or whether it was
that of all their brethren throughout the Earth! Aye! For InaI is what has occurred! !
have ]ust received direct advice of their mass annihilation from the Sages! We are bidden
to return forthwith to Shamballah, and give them a full explanation of this - !nIs - un/I-
!una! InIn!1 Fortunately, ! was able to follow the reasonings and anger within your
mind that led up to this event. Thus ! will stand in your stead as your mind-witness, your
defence counsel - an as your sapga!, I/ n D1 ! could hardly do otherwise! Nor
could !, in any sincerity, deny my own feelings of revulsion toward this treacherous and
venomous species - I that, had ! been other than an AvaIIanan, ! might well have been
sorely tempted to do likewise! So how can ! stand as your accuser or ]udge?
So fear not, Drew. Nethinks we shall be able to resolve this matter without resort-
ing to weighty penalties. The only thing the Sages fear, is that you might employ similar
tactics upon any Outer nation who re]ect your words when the time comes to begin your
Nission! However, we shall see! !t is all in the lap of the Sages! And how we pesent this
matter to them! Now let us concern ourselves no more about this foolish and pityful little
tyrant! ! do not think the world has much to fear from him for mnay generations yet to
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come!
As for this incident" - ! understand that the Fhrer has been told it was a chance
electromagnetic overload and discharge that reacted in some untoward way with the
gravitational field of the Earth! !n short - an un/I!una! aIn!!" ! will now go and
see what more ! can learn, and then we will return together directly to Shamballah. !
should not be long." And so saying, he left.
Holy Smoke, Drew!" cried Errol after Avistar had flashed away towards the central
swatika-shaped building. What in the name of Sam Hill did you do a thing like that for?"
Then he grinned. Still !m proud of you, buddy! You gave those bastards exactly what
they deserved! They asked for it, and they sure as Hell got it!"
Chas was even more pleased with Drews action. Ahll never forget that, mah
bonny wee laddie! Ah couldnae hae done it better mahsailf! Ahve never had anny love
whatsoaiver for yon creatures, since they tried tae drop me into yon ravine! Ye desairve a
bluidy meidal, man! An if yeve blaisted awa the whole boilin o them - weell, GuI
PIan is a ah can say! At least ye didnae realize yed be killin a the raist as well, noo,
did ye? So it wasnae a IDIa! act of genocide! Not like yon loonie Hitler craiture wi
his gas-chambers! Sae dinna fash yersailf, Drew, lad, and hauld yer haid up high wi
pride! Yeve done a grand sairvice tae the whole human race!"
Drew wasnt quite so sure that he had. Satan was always looking for willing ser-
vants, so if Drew had inadvertently fired a million or two demons into the Great Beyond,
Satan would be looking for some evil numan fools to take their places. And there was no
shortage of !nm! Even if hed managed to get rid of Hitler, too, into the bargain, how
many more prospective Hitlers were out there in the world, waiting in the wings to be
pushed out into the spotlight and touted as great leaders then merely wind up leading
mankind into further, fresh holocausts? At least, in this present Fools Paradise of Germania",
the ancient Fhrer wasnt likely to cause too much trouble Up Top", where all the a!In
was soon going to be!
Anyhow, now it looked like he was up for a severe bollocking at the very least from
the Sages - and possibly the loss of his VIII power, too - Although, come to think of it,
hadnt they said something about it being a gift that, once given, could never be revoked?
He hoped it wouldnt anyhow! He might ]ust need it again in the upcoming mission!
And who knew what might lie beyond that!
Before long Avistar was back. He had been an invisible observer at what must have
been one of the biggest fits of maniacal rage and temper tantrums ever thrown by the
Fuhrer - far greater even than the one he had thrown after his attempted asassination by
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a group of renegade generals toward the latter part of World War 2.
Hitler had ranted and raved at all of his senior staff and threatened them all with
summary execution unless the culprits for this outrage against his prospective allies - the
reptilians - were captured and brought to book. There were obviously dissidents among
the ranks of his general staff who opposed his plans for establishing a Fifth Reich and
taking his rightful place as the sole ruler of the entire world. They would be routed out
and compelled by whatever terrible means were necessary to divulge the identities of
their confederates!
He refused to accept that the deaths of the four emissaries from the O!nIs was an
accident. Both his own instincts and those of his Tibetan advisors were that the car and
its passengers had been targeted and obliterated by someone or some group within
Germania who had access to powers that were beyond the norm for the average citizen.
Therefore it had to be some group who were in touch with occult forces from the external
world. At one point he had even thrown a fit of some kind and fallen to the floor foaming
at the mouth!
The one thing that was apparent to Avistar was that Hitler and his Tibetan guardians
had concluded that VIII pwI had been the weapon used, and since only they possessed
this power. !t would only be a matter of time before Hilter recalled his two pre-dawn-
visitors - himself and Drew. Therefore, rather than await the inevitable search by the
Tibetans, who were both high degree adepts, it might be a good idea to take their leave
at once!
Within a moment the four were already well on their way back to Shamballah the
Great. However, rather than go directly there by the shortest possible route, Avistar
decided to show them one final ob]ect of great importance.
They shot up vertically upward throught the spaceship entry-shaft and its closed
irises, then eastward across the great frigid wasteland of the Antactic icecap until they
came to the fringe of the icepack beyond the Ross Sea, here Avistar plummeted straight
down into the Pacific Ocean to a point in its bed somewhere to the southeast of New
Zealand, where a great circular depression could be dimly perceived in the ocean foor.
However, undeterred, Avistar shot on down and vanished into the centre of this depres-
sion followed closely by his three charges. To their amazement as they plunged down-
ward through the layer of ooze and detritus, they found themselves hutling through a
great circular ring of a somewhat similar form to that of the exit port they had ]ust left!
But this one was enormously wide in diameter, certainly several hundreds of miles across!
Drew realized with a thrill of delight that this must be the Southern Polar portal! But why
was it n! IsI to the south Pole I!sI/? He would have to ask Avistar, later. !t also
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occurred to him - a tad too late - that, had he realized the direction of their flight, he
might have persuaded Avistar to let them fly on a little over the east coast of Australia, and
made a quick visit to Glengarry station along the way! At their current warp-speed" it
would have barely been a second or two out of their way, surely?
A moment later they were through the second great inner portal and had emerged
upwards from the the sea of the !nner Earth, into the perennial soft light of its gentle sun
and the warmth of its internal atmosphere. Although this was an area where the three
visitors had never before ventured, Avistar guided them unerringly towards a nearby
coastline and before long they began to recognize some familiar landmarks of Agartha.
Almost within a twinkling they were above Shamballah and descending on to the balcony
and craft-park of their lodging-house apartment.
As they drifted inside the apartment, Drew noted that the girls had not yet returned.
He followed the others into their sleeping quarters where they all re-entered their lengthy
and hefty Agarthan-style bodies. Within a few moments more they had all awoken inside
their fleshly giant forms, and were stretching and groaning at the stiffness of their muscles
and their limbs. !t was a very curious sensation to awake from one seeming dream right
into another, but that was certainly how it appeared to them.
Gee Whizz!" said Errol, painfully flexing his long arms and legs and yawning cavern-
ously. ! dunno about you, buddy, but ! feel like !ve been asleep for centuries, like old Rip
van Winkle! Tell, me, Drew, did we ]ust dream all that, or did we actually visit all those
places?"
Dont ask me, mate!" replied Drew, climbing painfully to his feet. As far as ! can
figure it must have been a dream! Otherwise our bodies would be a hell of a lot stiffer
than this! We mustve been gone a! Ias! a couple of wKs if all that was truly fair dinkum
and real! Beats me, old son!"
Chas was of the same opinion. We couldnae hae gone tae all those places an done
all yon things under tain or twailve days, at the verra least, Ahm sairtain!"
Here Avistar arose, flexing all his muscles and generally limbering himself up.
!n your outer time-meaure," he said, we have been out of our bodies for ]ust five
days! And during that time, specially-appointed physiotherapists have called here regu-
larly to prevent our bodies from becoming too stiff and sore, and also they have exercised
our limbs and changed our lying positions so that we would retain proper blood-circulation
and muscle-tone!" He listened for a moment, then added. As a matter of interest, they
are doing so with the two females bodies, even as we speak!"
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Errol gave Drew a rather mischievous grin. ! believe we ought to go and take over
from them now! Waddaya say, buddy!" Drew grinned back at him.
But Avistar was not particularly amused.
! do not think that Drew will have the time for any such frivolities, Errol!" he said
severely. He and ! have a fairly pressing engagement to keep with the Sages ]ust about
now. They have learned that we have returned, and desire to confer with us, most
urgently! He paused as if listening to a far-off voice. ! also gather that they are not
particularly pleased with what has occurred."
Then, as he led Drew, like a lamb to the slaughter out on to the balcony, he called
back: !ts also possible that they might wish to hear from further witnesses. So ! suggest
that you do not leave this apartment until either you are called, or until we return!" Then
he softly added, But remember that we are aII in this together!"
Then, with a curt nod at Errol and Chas, he and Drew clambered into his ship and
after powering it up, took off for the Sages Palace. During the brief flight Avistar said
little , but before they exited the craft on the place landing-pad. He told Drew very quietly
and privately, Remember this. Whatever transpires, Drew, you must let me do all the
talking. You may quite easily blurt out something which you will later have cause to
regret.
And also bear this strongly in mind when we face the Sages. They are not fools, nor
do they suffer fools gladly. Be guarded in any answers that you give! Whilst it is true
that they cannot take back your VIII powers, it is also true that they aI n! Dun to
transfer your spirit back into your original Outer Earth human body! !t is quite easily
possible that they may deem you to be too great a risk now to go upon the Great Nission.
!n which case you will remain here In )uI pIsn! /Im, whilst your comrades and the
two young women carry out their task without you!"
Do ! make myself clear in all this, Drew?" said Avistar, looking gravely into Drews
eyes. !f the Sages should so choose, you may find yourself permanently imprisoned in an
Agarthan body - and since this Edenan form is not suitable for the conditions that prevail
upon the outer surface, you would therefore have to remain here within the !nner Earth
permanently!"
! understand it only too clearly!" mumbled Drew, now very worried.
Then let us get this unpleasant business over with!" said Avistar, gripping Drews
shoulder firmly in a token of his support and encouragement.
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!t was therefore with great trepidation that a very much chastened Drew reluctantly
accompanied his mentor toward the great crystal doors that opened into the great Audi-
ence Chamber of the Sages.
The same giant attendants in orange robes accompanied them from their ship and
stood with them before the huge doors, until at some inner command from the Sages the
door once again swung open of their own volition. As Avistar and Drew entered the vast
Audience Chamber of the Sages of Agartha they again saw on its far end the same el-
evated round plinth with its central circular high-backed couch upon which the three giant
Buddha-like figures sat cross-legged amid their cushions.
But this time, as the two visitors approached across the thickly-carpeted floor, the
three figures arose rather sombrely to meet them at the head of the plinths short stair-
case. Drew paused in midstride to cast a quick glance off to the side He was relieved to
see that the space-ship decompression-chamber" still lay where they had last seen it
before departing upon their tour. He fought back the urge to dart across and check that
his original Earthy body was still being maintained in suspended animation inside it.
Barely had the fleeting thought crossed his mind than one of the Sages spoke tele-
pathically into his worried mind.
You have no need to be concerned about your body, Drew! !t is still safe within the
ship at present - though whether it will continue to remain there is a matter we have yet
to decide! Now come forward with Avistar and let us discuss this thing you have done so
impulsively!"
He re]oined Avistar and advanced to the top step of the staircase and bowed his
head with Avistar toward the three Sages. Their spokesman was the same who had
addressed them at their first encounter. He addressed them both verbally in English, for
Drews sake, and because Avistar was now completely fluent in it having listened to them
all speaking together for some time now.
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You both know why you have been summoned into our presence, so we have no
need to mince words. We desire a full and complete explanation, Drew, of how you came
to abuse this power after we had specifically bidden you not to do so! To kill off an entire
species - no matter how reprehensible a species they may have been, is nothing less than
an act of criminal genocide! Now, who will speak first on this unfortunate business?"
Avistar raised a hand slightly. ! will speak on Drews behalf, if it is permitted, since
he is but a young spirit and likely to render a muddled account. ! was an eye-witness to
what transpired , and, since ! was the leader of the party, ! feel that Drews action is
therefore my responsibility! !s this acceptable to your Graces?"
The three Sages touched their heads together for a moment in silent communion,
then the spokesman raised his head. !t is acceptable for you to represent this human, O
Avistar, provided that you are prepared to accept your share of any blame and penalty we
may determine for his actions! Do you agree to this?"
Aye! ! do, and gladly!" said Avistar with some show of spirit. !f he has failed you,
then so have ! - by not impressing upon him sufficiently the gravity of the reponsibility
which comes with such power!"
very well, then. so let it be!" said the Sage. Now, tell us in full detail exactly how
this incident came about!" And so Avistar began by telling them of how they had visited
various cities and communities, before they had finally arrived at the Nazi cavern-land of
Germania. He then detailed all of their activities and the business of the fight between
the Tibetan adept and the Reptilian who had attempted to either murder or seriously
harm Hitlers comatose body. He then described their subsequent activities and observa-
tions which had culminated in the arrival of the four reptilian emissaries by spacecraft and
how both Drew and he had seen them and heard them pouring scorn and derision upon
their unwitting would-be ally.
He then asked them to bear with him whilst he remarked upon a few points that
explained Drews next action.
Upon their waves of encouragement to do so, he then told them what he knew of
what had occurred to Drew and his party at the hands of this same reptilian species on
their way through the Earths crust. He also told them how Avallahans like himself had
had to guard them from these treacherous creatures whilst they slept. He also told them
of how these same creatures had tried to kill them even before they had begun to de-
scend into the pit.
Thus, given Drews close knowledge of ]ust how totally evil and fiendishly treacher-
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ous a race the reptilians were, and his natural and entirely understandable revulsion for
them, he had attempted to prevent these four from practicing even further deceit and
treachery - even on a race such as those of Germania whom he already held in consider-
able contempt. Acting upon the spur of the moment, Drew had merely intended to wreck
their car and in]ure its occupants before they could enter the citadel and wreak untold
havoc upon its people. He had obviously forgotten the immense power that the vril force
could generate from his feelings of antipathy toward these four bestial creatures. He
could certainly have had no inkling of the widespread disastrous effects his anger would
have upon all of their kin.
That had come as a total surprise to himself! Just as it must surely have been even
to the Sages? !t could only have been due to their communal hive-linkage"in spirit.
Their entire race must have all shared a single ]oint-spirit of evil, inspired by their master,
Satan! !n short, in Avistars own humble opinion, they were clearly an artifically-cloned
sub-race created and inspired by Satan, and not by the Great Creative Spirit. !n conclu-
sion therefore, although Drew snuI have paused to reflect upon the mighty power he
was capable of unleashing, he had not done this deed with any malicious forethought of
obliterating even the original four, much less their entire race. !t had simply been a
product of ]ustifiable human anger. A passion that humans had not yet learned to repress
as easily as Edenans did. As to the holocaust of the race, that was the fault of the One
who had illegally created them thus out of his own evil spirit.
He would there have to rest his case and leave the matter up to the superior wisdom
and clemency of the Trinity.
He then stopped speaking, bowed low to the Sages and took one step back down-
ward, leaving Drew alone before the three Sages, who once again conferred silently to-
gether.
Now another of the sages turned his gaze upon Drew. !s all of this as Avistar has
related it, or have you anything further to add?" he asked. Drew stared him back in the
eye unflinchingly. ! believe that what Avistar has told you is entirely accurate, except that
! did at the time heartily wish them all to Hell, since they were the spawn of Satan, and
therefore the enemies of the Great Creator Spirit whom ! revere most deeply. ! admit that
! gave way to the human weakness of anger that they should so brazenly sneer at the man
who was once a terrible tyrant in our own world and yet for whom ! felt a certain pity in his
advanced years. !t was my own view that this man had been a dupe of his own followers,
and that he had originally sought only the welfare of his own nation. His poor choice of
disciples had drawn him into a quagmire of the deepest and bloodiest sin, and, as their
Fhrer, he alone stood ultimately answerable to the Great Creator of All Things. !t is not
up to myself or any other man to pass ]udgment upon his great misdeeds. That is Gods
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own bailiwick. However, that doesnt excuse my stupid outburst of anger at these wretched
creatures. Or my cry to God to blast them! !t is done, and ! cannot undo it now. ! am
ready to take my punishment, but ! dont see why Avistar should be blamed for my own
impetuosity. ! did it before he had time to intervene! So ! beg you, sirs, to exonerate him
from any blame!"
The three Sages had been eyeing him carefully throughout this declaration, and
after asking him if there was anything more he wished to add, to which he shook his head,
sadly, they waved Drew and Avistar away down the steps and again went into one of their
quite literal tete-a-tetes".
They seemed to take hours over their deliberations, but it was really only a few
minutes before they finally resumed their original postures and called the two of them
back up on to the top step.
`This is it, mate! thought Drew privately, youre really up for the High Jump this
time, old son, no bloody worries! Just hope they leave poor old Avistar out of it!
The original spokesman Sage again addressed them.
We have now considered all the facts and aspects of this case, and have agreed
upon our decision. We have therefore decided that there is no criminal case to answer on
the part of either of you!"
Drew had to fight hard to keep a straight face. Then the spokesman went on.
However, in view of the aggressive tendencies you nav clearly exhibited, Drew, we
order you to undergo a rigorous course of temper-management and control, which is
to be administered by yourself, Avistar, by way of reparation for your obvious neglect in
this area! However, as to the charges themselves, we hereby declare the entire case to
be dismissed!"
Drew heaved a big sigh of relief, as he suspected did Avistar also. But the Sage had
not quite finished with playing with them yet.
We shall therefore examine you again, Drew, in five periods time, to check that you
have learned Avistars lessons. !f we find that you have, then you and your companions
will be mIn-ImpIIn! by ourselves with all the necessary words and arguments you will
require, and you will be sent forth upon your mission svn pIIs from this day! W
nav spKn1"
Then he added, pleasantly surprising them both, And now all that is finally re-
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solved, we would like you to ]oin us in a meal!" He then clapped his hands sharply, and
waved them to sit up on the couch beside them.
The platform was soon alive with serving-girls carrying all kinds of excellent savouries
and sweetmeats and the great circular table literally groaned under the weight of it all.
Avistars eyes met those of Drew, and he was surprised to see tears of ]oy trickling down
the Avallahans face. Avistar moved his lips in a silent Thank you!" and Drew ]ust grinned
back at him happily, smiling broadly and shaking his head dismissively at Avistars need to
express any gratitude. !t was all sorted, again!
!t was quite a long time before they were able to relax in their craft again and head
back to the lodging-house apartment, full to the point of bursting. They had ]ust had their
first meal for five days, and egged on by the Sages theyd both rather over-done things a
shade more than a little!
However, they were both very happy and relieved to have been exonerated from
blame for the disappearance of the reptilian race. All in all it had been a very ]ust
decision, particularly since, although neither of them knew it, the Sages had finally de-
cided that, if the Great Creator Spirit had seen fit to answer Drews anguished cry for the
demons to be extinguished, it was not within their humble ]urisdiction to go against His
Decision!
When they at last returned to their lodging-house, Drew was delighted to find that
the girls had returned from their trip home to Glengarry, even though they were still
recovering from the pain and stiffness in their Agarthan bodies. Errol was making suitable
cooing noises over Hazel as she complained about how sore she felt. But Narianne, true to
her staunch Red !ndian bloodline, simply suffered in silence. They were all greatly pleased
(and not a little surprised) to welcome Drew and Avastar back. But Narianne was even
more delighted to see Drew again. Especially after hearing from the others about his
holocaustal VIII elimination of the demonic Reptilian race" and how the Sages were ex-
tremely angry about it. She had fearful thoughts of him being summarily tried and ex-
ecuted on the spot by the Sages, and probably Avistar with him, for allowing Drew to
commit such a deed.
However, that nan! happened, and here they were, all safely together again! After
a suitably emotional greeting, and a brief resume of what had occurred during their inter-
rogation, Drew got around to asking Narianne how his family were holding up in his
absence. She told Drew theyd both established a strong psychic contact with Joans
astral, via what to Joan would have been an extremely powerful and unforgettable dream!
She was thus able to report that all was well on the Hm FIn! apart from Joans
continuing to worry quite a lot about them all.
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Strangely, when Joan had related her Iam-vIsIn encounter with Narianne and
Hazel to Bob, amazingly, he had totally DIIv her! Thus they had both been greatly
relieved to learn that all was well and that the group had made it to the interior with
relatively little in]ury. She and Hazel had naturally spared Joan all the gory details of their
frightful ]ourney! Thankfully, Bob had evidently recovered from his terrible mood-swings
and was back to his old happy self again.
Oh, yes!" Narianne added finally. She had almost forgotten to mention that the
CS!RO and State authorities, after a very close inspection of the outcrop area, had taken
away several mysterious plastic-wrapped bundles on stretchers in closed vans. They had
later returned and sealed all the cave-openings that Bob had blown apart, solidily with
reinforced concrete and encircled the outcrop with a high barbed-wire fence - complete
with Health Hazard" warnings!
Drew felt much relieved to hear this, and that his people were under no further
threat from the demonic creatures. But he still wondered secretly if aII or onIy one
species of the assorted types of reptilians had been eradicated. There had been at least
!nI different kinds that he could recall! Only God knew how many others there might
s!III D which theyd never met! And, of course, there was the ArchDemon himself, still
out there pulling the strings!
However, perhaps they might not need to go back via the same route, when the
time came. Hopefully, once their mission was over theyd already be "Up Top" in the
flesh, and would hopefully be taken Home from there.
He had felt a little guilty that they had had another banquet with the Sages after the
interview, whist his companions were still sitting around hungry. But he hadnt reckoned
upon Errols charm in managing to locate the management and arrange for a great ban-
quet of their own! There was still plenty left, as was evidenced by the still burdened
tables out on the balcony, so between them all, they nibbled, munched and drank their
way through it all, well into what should have been the early hours of the next morning"!
During all the chitchat and general ]ollity, Avistar approached Drew and congratu-
lated him on how hed handled himself before the Sages. He also thanked him for his
kindness in downplaying his own role in the debacle. But Drew wouldnt hear of it. As far
as he was concerned, Avistar had not been guilty of anything since it was too spontaneous
an outburst of rage on Drews part, which he could never have foreseen or stopped.
However, he stated that he really na learned a very important lesson on the power of VIII,
and would never allow his temper to ]eopardise things again, regardless of provocation.
He gave Avistar his solemn oath to that effect.
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Avistar was delighted to hear it, and said that since he understood Drew to be a man
of his word, he would be only too happy to forego the instruction-lessons on temper-
management he was supposed to give Drew. !nstead, since they now had five whole
pIIs free before reporting back to the Sages, he asked them all what they wished to
see or do in the intervening five surface-days holiday"?
There were several suggestions mooted. Hazel wanted to go back to visit her ceta-
cean friends out in the ocean, Narianne wanted to see how the ordinary people lived
around Edena, Chas was most amxious to get back to the great College of Sages to
continue his interrupted studies, and Errol was keen to go on with his spacecraft-flying
lessons under Avistars tuition. Drew himself was personally interested in seeing more of
the polar regions of the !nner earth and to discover how ships could leave and enter
through the portals.
All of this amused and perplexed Avistar a little until he resolved the whole business
by suggesting that they drop Chas off at the College of Sages and turn him over to a
personal guide, then, with Errol and Drew flying his own ship, they could each have their
own wishes fulfilled in turn. Or, alternatively, if Errol and Drew wished to fly !nmsIvs in
their wn craft, he would give them both a quick refresher lesson in using the crafts
controls first, before taking the girls with himself to see the dolphins, seals and whales,
and to visit a few of the various villages, villas and other communities around Edana at
random. But Drew ob]ected that if they did that, he wouldnt have Avistar with him to
explain about the portals or even how to discover their locations! However, Avistar then
reminded him that wherever they were, or however far apart they chanced to be, he could
always be contacted by telepathy. (FI a DII/ mmn! DIw /ugn! nImsI/ IaugnIngI) !
avI asKIng AvIs!aI /I nIs IIpnn numDI1} !n any event, added Avistar, studiously
ignoring Drews ]oking thought, now that they were all greatly enhanced In!II!uaII) as
well as spiritually by the VIII power, Drew should be able to answer his own questions, and
solve his own problems by pure logical deduction! All he really had to do was think
pI!aIs and the VIII power would reveal them to him! !t was as simple as that.
And so it was. Before long, the girls were hovering in Avistars ship out over the
ocean, and being treated to a wonderful show specially put on for them by both the
dolphins and the deadly yet playful black and white orcas! These Avistar told them were
exactly the same species that inhabited the oceans of the outer World. They came and
went more or less as they wished whenever the great polar portals were opened twice per
orbit to permit a refreshing interchange of water and atmosphere.
Thus it was that they were able to gain both a spiritual and extrasensory recharge"
since there was a superabundance of both InsI the Earth as compared to its comparitively
astrally-impoverished exterior. Hazel found that she was able to communicate infinitely
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better with them now that her own extrasensory perceptivity had been charged up to full
power by the vril effect and Narianne shared the same ability too.
!t appeared that some of the cetaceans were well acquainted with the South Pacific
coastal areas of both New Zealand and Australia, as well as Nariannes own northwest
Canada location on vancouver !sland, close to that same vast ocean. !t was amazing to
converse with these animals and to know that they had actually frequented habitats so
close to their homes! There were two or three among them who had actually been
stranded on the eastern Australian coast and had been rescued from their perilous situa-
tions and refloated by sympathetic and kindly humans from the local seafront towns.
Hazel had heard a lot about this, even though it wasnt such a common occurrence
near her home in Auckland, and she asked them why this happened. The general reason
was because sometimes one or other of their pods lost their sense of echolocation due to
either disease or in]ury, and had thus swum straight into shallow water and become
grounded in the sand. !t was only natural that the others followed them to try to release
them by nudging them free. But alas, all too often the would-be rescuers themselves
became stranded and so, too, did others who came to help them.
They often disregarded the urgent warnings of their beached fellows in the hope
that they might be more successful. Nany cetaceans had died miserable deaths because
of this single fault - if indeed it was a fault - in their care for one another, but a good many
others owed their lives to those lovingly-thoughtful and sensitive humans who tended
them and kept them moist and sheltered from the hot tropical sun until the tide returned
high enough to lift them off the sand.
Because of this they grew to trust the humans - a trust that sadly, was all too often
totally misplaced. Certain peoples on the Outer Earth were great lovers of dolphin and
whale-meat and made various by-products from their ample blubber. All in all, it was a
great pity that the humans were often so psychically insensitive that they couldnt pick up
their messages. They were every bit as intelligent as humans -often vn mI s, since
the cetacea needed no houses or fires to keep them warm or sheltered from the ele-
ments, and they were surrounded by a great abundance of food, as well as huge area of
ocean to explore and play in! Why, they had /uI !Ims as much space as the humans did!
The outer Earth was essentially a wa!I-pIan!! This was only offset by the !nner Earths
surface being almost the exact ppsI!, and yet they still had an enormous area of !nner
sea at their disposal!
As the girls conversed telepathically thus with the cetaceans, Avistar sat by, listening
in with great pleasure to this open forum of exchanded ideas and thoughts. !f only all of
Surface Dwellers could learn the lessons these two young women were learning! What a
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wonderfully different place the Outer Earth might then become! He shook his head sor-
rowfully, that the human race in general would have to learn to tolerate and care for other
lifeforms the hardest way possible, by wiping themselves out through their own greedi-
ness and wastefulness of all the freely-supplied and once abundant resources around
them!
Whilst he himself shared all the wonderful ideals, aims and ob]ectives of the Sages,
he found that, however much he tried to think positively about the outcome of the up-
coming Nission, he ]ust could n! share their optimism that all the outer humans could
still be redeemed. Even among this tiny handful of changeling humans currently under
his care, he often detected sudden impulses of a deeply-imbedded selfishness and greed
- not to mention envy - and maII - such as Drew himself had so recently exhibited on an
enormous scale! !t would never do for any !nI humans to be gifted with the VIII power!
He felt rather saddened that it could not be withdrawn again from even !ns few -
certainly from the men, at least! However that was beyond any of their control now -
even that of the Sages! He found himself wondering how Drew and Errol were getting
along with their search for portals.
Suddenly, with a shock of alarm, it occurred to him that their search might not be
one of mere II uIIsI!)! What if they were contemplating leaving the !nner Earth in
order to avI their agreed and onerous mIssIn now so close at hand?
At once he closed his eyes and focussed his senses keenly in order to pick up their
thoughts and conversation..
Drew and Errol, after a rather exciting measure of experimentation with the mind-
controls of their craft, had now settled down to a detailed search for portals around the
quite extensive surface of Edena. Once one began a search of this kind, Drew realized,
with some surprise, the surface of the inner Earth wasnt really all !na! mun less than that
of the outer surface! !n fact, the land surface was considerably greater, thanks to the
reversal of proportions between land and ocean! Also he noticed that now they were
making a much more systematic search, he found that an arm of the sea approached
closely to the positions of both external poles. (TnIs was sm!nIng HazI nan! sp!!
In nI wn as!IaI /IIgn! aIun !n nIIw spnI.}
Theyd managed to figure out how to detect the Earths central polar axis despite its
hollowness, by using an onboard gravitation densitometer. The Earths hollow crust was
defintely much thicker around its equatorial region and this was easily detected by that
instrument. A visual three-dimensional white-meshed image of the Earths spherical gravi-
tational field was pro]ected as a hologram above the appropriate hand-panel. !ts density
was easily observable at all latitudes - as was the almost total lack of gravitation at the
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locations of the two polar apertures which appeared as quite large and darkish grey discs!
They also noticed that there were a fair number of far smaller and equally
threadbare"circular patches scattered around like thinly-veiled portholes in different places
around the holographic sphere. These must surely be the locations of the gravitational
vortexes Avistar had once told them about, and of which, Hazel had once seen one actu-
ally being used? Nost of them, however, were located in the various arms of the inner
ocean, which although relatively small, reached out into the much larger landmass like the
body and arms of some grotesque liquid octopus.
They wondered for a while how to select a specific portal and tied every trick in the
book until Drew remembered Avistars recommendation to let the VIII do it for them. All
they had to do was think about a particular portal and focus their thoughts upon it, hed
said. So they selected a portal in the northern hemisphere of the holographic image that
floated in midair before them, and though about it opening up for them.
The result was so startling that they were at first almost scared witless by it! Right
out of the blue, a sudden burst of white cloud gathered above the arm of the ocean that
lay quite ad]acent to them, virtually outside the windows of their craft, and almost at once
it had turned into a sort of tornado or waterspout, that rotated ever faster as they watched
it. They could see by looking down where its touched the ocean that it continued on
downwards into its depths.
Errol was all for moving the ship at once into its spinning vortex and seeing where it
took them, but Drew was becoming too cautious for such impulsive acts. Hed ]ust had a
stiff lesson in where sudden impulses could land one! What if they got carried right
through to the outer surface ocean and up into the sky - or even up into outer space?
Errol was quite disappointed in Drews reticence. Hey! What happened to the old
Zap Èm Dead" buddy ! once knew and revered, Drew ? We could have sneaked home to
Glengarry for a quick mug of ]ava, old chum!" Drew suddenly realized that Errol was
probably right! The speed of these saucer-craft was really phenomenal and they could
have gone home and come back before anyone even knew they were missing!
However, to all intents and purposes he was bound by his wI / nnuI to stick
around the !nner Earth, and if he na pulled such a stunt, Avistar would most likely have
been hung, drawn and quartered by the Sages for not keeping a sharp eye on him. He
put it all out of his mind, and switched his thoughts to another puzzle. How were the polar
holes themselves controlled?
!mmediately, Avistars voice spoke into his mind. !n exactly the same way, Drew!"
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Avistar said, But there have to be at least Inree fully-powered minds focussing upon that
particular mechanism for it to operate! Thus it is usually the Trinity of Sages who open the
polar portals at nine long-period" intervals - twice per orbit! This is a regular important
ceremony which is attended by many onlookers from all the Edenan lands. !t is quite a
wonderful spectacle to witness. ! hope that you might still be here with us at the next
Opening Ceremony!"
Drew, having recovered from the surprise of realizing that Avistar had been mentally
eavsdropping upon their conversation - especially Errols hare-brained scheme for"bunking-
off home" ! - now asked him why the opened holes were never seen by aircraft or ships
around the polar regions.
Oh, but Iney are!" replied Avistar, with a mischievous astral chuckle. There have
been countless sIgn!Ings, but fortunately for us, very few DIIvIs! ! think ! have men-
tioned previously that some have even entered through them at such times, and have
been returned to the outer surface again in safety - only to become the sub]ects of
ridicule and scorn when they told their stories! Your outer scholars and scientists are
exceptionally narrow-minded in this regard! Hopefully, you will be able to help open their
minds a little during your mission!"
Then he went on to explain how the polar portals were usually obscured by a spe-
cially prepared cover of fog and cloud which was produced by a very localized weather
manipulation, much as were the vortexes for the lesser portals. As he had already pointed
out the polar openings were essentially for the refreshment of ocean and atmospheric
conditions within the Earths interior. The smaller vortex-type portals were solely for the
ingress and egress of their vimanas. This was the first time Drew had heard them actually
named in the !nner Earth. So !nIs was where the ancient Hindus had derived the name!
!t was also where they obtained their /I)Ing-Ia/! to begin with!" put in Avistar,
reading his thoughts. We Avallahans were loathe to give them the plans and instructions
to build their own, but some foolhardy Agarthan spy was eventually stupid enough to
furnish them with our construction secrets, and it was this lunatic act that led to the war
between Atlantis and the Raman Empire of the ancient Nacaals!
!f Atlantis had been left to its own devices," he went on, those Sons of Belial might
have stayed within their own borders and in their own land - and aII been drowned with
it! !nstead they came up against the Raman Rishi cities and blasted three of them flat
before Rama capitualated. But by then the forerunners of the Athenians and Greeks had
also ]oined in the war against Atlantis. !t was purely by good fortune that the great gas-
chambers beneath Atlantis began to explode and collapse, otherwise Atlantis would even
today s!III dominate the world! However, because they had dry-land bases, many Atlante-
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ans survived."
Drew was quite engrossed by now. Who were the Atlantean survivors then if they
still lived on? Were they really the Basqus, as many scholars claim? And did they use VIII
power to flatten those Rishi cities?"
You have many questions today, Drew!" laughed Avistar. But to answer you. The
Basques are certainly amng the distant descendants of the Atlanteans, as are many !nI
races today! But the largest body of Atlantean progeny were the Pnoen1c1ans! You
may recall your history, since you have some knowledge of ancient things. Their chief city
was in ancient Libya, and became Carthage - not very far removed from their original
homeland! But they soon built other cities around the Nediterranean basin. Tyre was
the chiefest of these for many centuries. But they still clung to their original evil god ,
Belial, Bel, or Baal, who was another form of Set or Satan, the sworn enemy of the Great
Creator Spirit!"
He paused here for a moment as if racking his memory, then he continued on: No,
thankfully, the Atlantean 5ns / BIIaI never possessed the power of VIII! !nstead they
used that same power that so bedevils the world to this day - the power of the sna!!I
a!m! However, the Ramans had been gifted with a moderated form of the VIII power by
Agartha, in order to defend themselves. This lesser but nonetheless dangerously offen-
sive form of VIII was the prime ingredient of the famous weapon called Kap1IIas GIance
which could be used mn!aII) via the )s by an adept, or through a special I I spaI
by the uninitiated!"
Then he added, before Drew could quizz him further, And now ! must attend to my
immediate charges, Narianne and Hazel, who wish to visit some of the villages and people
in some of the other lands of Edena. But remember that ! will still have my mind cocked
toward you both!"
Drew had to smile at Avistars veiled threat. But he knew that he had the power to
disable their craft from afar if he so needed. !ts OK, Avistar, old mate!" he thought,
cheekily. Well try our best to be good little boys!" They were both sure they then heard
a stifled ghostly chuckle echoing over the astral airwaves.
From then on they, desisted from fiddling around with portals of any kind, and
concentrated instead upon searching the land for their original point of entry. They soon
located the state of Avallah, and carefully surveyed all the countryside surrounding the
region of vallissum. But they met with no luck, until Drew sudden recalled that the same
inhehrent power which had located the portals should be capable of locating tunnel en-
trances! All thay had to do was focus upon an image of the little clifftop area theyd first
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emerged upon. Drew recalled how it was poised above a great river chasm.
But it was still quite some time before they finally located it. Then suddenly !nI I!
was! A tiny pocket handkerchief of mauve-blue sward before a vine draped cliff edge.
They carefully manoeuvred their craft into the centre of the grassy knoll, set it down and
stared out at the barely-discernible vine-curtained cave entrance.
What dyou reckon, Errol?" Drew asked. Are you game to go back in and have
another go at those nasty little bastards?"
N-- !nanKs, brother!" cried Errol very definitely. Once around the goddamn
daffodils with those critters was plenty for me, buddy! You go right ahead if you want to,
Drew, but !ll ]ust stick around in nI, if you n! mind!"
But what can they do to us nw?" asked Drew, goadingly. Hazel ]ust about wiped
the floor with the little sods - and in any case, we have the VIII with us now!"
Oh, Yeah! GIa!!" said Errol with heavy sarcasm. ! suppose youre gonna wipe out
all the II!!I reptilian species next, hey?"
This remark stopped Drew dead in his tracks. Hed somehow clean forgotten all
about his mass-extinction of the horned demon race! Errol was absolutely right! !f the
smaller lizard-like demons had attacked him again he might very easily have repeated his
last stupid trick and seen them all off the entire planet! What a brainless bloody galah he
was!
His thoughts must have been so powerful at this near-squeak that they even at-
tracted Avistars attention from afar. However, Avistar was careful to be diplomatic about
it. ! would appreciate it very much, Drew," he said, if you and Errol would now begin
making your way home again to Shamballah. We shall not be far behind you ourselves
now, as the young women are both rapidly tiring of the travel. Perhaps you would be so
good as to call and pick up the professor from the College of Sages on the way home?"
Tna!s a PgI, agI On1 said Drew brightly, glad to be freed from an awkard
situation. WII1 agI Tw, OvI an Ou!1
As they took off, drew took one final glance towards the tunnel mouth and was
rewarded by the sight of two or three suspiciously familiar shapes moving around ]ust
behind the leafy screen that overhung the opening. "Therel" he yelled, and Errol looked
too - ]ust in time to see one of the same demonic little creatures dart swiftly out and then
back in again. Obviously, it was trying to coax them out of the craft to go and investigate
the tunnel mouth. Not today, Sunny Jiml" shouted Drew, even though the ship was
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soundproof. He mentally directed the silver craft to lift off and head home south-west
towards Agartha and Shamballah. Errol heaved a deep sigh of relief. Even until the last
moment, he hadnt been altogether certain that Drew wouldnt succumb to the tempation
to exit the craft and go in after the taunting devils!
He was a happy and very relieved man as the craft swung widely up into the whitish
haze of the sky, through which a faint mosaic of the opposite hemisphere showed like a
misty relief map, then curved away to streak at high speed toward home. Or what they
had now become accustomed to regard as Home", after their many weird and wonderful
- and, all too often, extremely danger-fraught - recent adventures inside the Earths crust!
Now for a nice bit of real R 8 R, close to the girl he had now come to love so very
dearly! Drews inner thoughts were very much along the same lines, as he contemplated
some real quality-time in the company of his beloved !ndian maiden, Narianne! Not to
mention a decent /, too! They were both feeling very peckish!
As they approached Shamballah, Errol asked Drew if he had any idea of how long
theyd been out on their free-wheeling holiday trip.
Wouldnt have a bloody clue!" said Drew. ! still find it hard to keep an) track of
time in this world! ! keep looking at my wristwatch, but its not worth a cracker down
here, with no clue as to whether its night or daytime. ! can only make a wild stab at it. !d
say that we`ve been out for around a day or thereabouts - 5uI/a-TIm, that is! Why
dyou want to know?"
Well, it may come as some surprise to you, buddy, but according to my reckoning,
weve been out for around !nI pIIs - in Edenan time! No wonder !m feeling hun-
gry! Only two more left, then we all go see the Sages again. And then, if )u pass muster
in the AngI-Managmn! DpaI!mn! - we get to be brainwashed and transferred back
to our own bodies again. Cant really say !m looking forward much to !na!, Drew! !ve
kinda gotten used to being a IaI DIg gu)!"
Drew smiled to himself. He himself was looking forward eagerly to being put back
into his own body again - and to seeing Narianne in nI much more petite and pretty
natural form, too.
Doesnt bother me much, Errol," he said. ! guess that if we were to appear up top
in !ns giant bodies, everybody would be too bloody busy running for cover to stand and
listen to us talking! Can you imagine how your own National Guard guys in Washington
would behave if we materialized looking like this on the White House lawn? Or climbed
out of a flying-saucer outside the Pentagon, looking like a bunch of Space-!nvaders? 1
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DI) an! The old tanks and field artillery would be there in a flash! !ve seen too many
alien-invasion" movies not to know what sort of reception wed get! Short, sharp, and to
the bloody point! Remember that movie:Tn Da) Tn aI!n 5! 5!III ? Well !na!s
]ust about what would happen!"
Yeah, but wn sa)s theyll be sending us to WasnIng!n, or even anypIace in the
US?" Errol wanted to know. We might get dumped in the TIanan mn 5quaI in Bei]ing,
or maybe even Ws!mIns!I in London!" He racked his brains feverishly. Or - or - even the
P 5quaI outside the KImIIn in Noscow!"
Blowed if ! know, old mate!" said Drew after some thought. But itd have to be
some place that all the world media vultures would be able to reach in a hurry - and the
US of A seems to be where all the big global political shindigs generally take place! Camp
David, the United Nations and all that ]azz! ! guess well ]ust have to leave it up to the
Sages, old son! Not much point in us trying to second guess those ]okers! Theyve
probably already got it all figured out - so lets wait and see, eh?"
He stopped chatting then as they were now hovering over the roof of the gigantic
College of Sages building and he had to look out carefully for a parking-position. How-
ever, there seemed to be plenty of room, so he was able to put the ship down quite close
to one of the elevator entrances.
They eventually found Chas sitting in a large cafeteria refreshment area of one of
the vast floors in the great repository of wisdom and artifacts. He was busily engaged in
a profound mental discussion of Outer Surface geology and biology with a tall and very
aged and frail-looking scholar of distinctly Tibetan appearance! At first they wondered if
he had somehow been caught up with by an agent of the Nazis, who had in some myste-
rious way tracked them back to Shamballah.
But happily, it turned out after they had been introduced, that Queng Lobsang, the
antique Tibetan giant, had actually been born in Lhasa, itself, and after many long years of
dedicated service in the Potala, he had been astrally and bodily transferred, by a kindly
Agarthan Sage whom he had met many times upon that plane, to Shamballah, ]ust as he
was preparing to die of old age at ninety-eight.
He had now lived on in Shamballah for a /uI!nI n nunI an !wn!) )aIs, and
had acquired a further and much more massive amount of both temporal and arcane
wisdom. This he had done, without once in all that time, setting foot beyond the threshold
of this magnificent establishment of learning! Chas had asked him what would become of
all his great store of knowledge when he finally decided to pass on to a higher realm of
soulish existence.
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The lama had told him that he would be taken to the Sages Palace where his
mental Aladdins Cave" of patiently-garnered information would be copied (smwna!
a/!I !n mannI / !Ians/IIIng a p) / a vas! a!a-/II /Im n mpu!I ! an!nI}
into another younger and receptive mind, so that the benficiary would quite literally begin
with a huge Ha-5!aI! upon his scholarly career! However, this could be done repeat-
edly for any number of younger scholars in the interim. He did not have to wait until he
wished to move on to a higher plane of spiritual life to pass on his wisdom - it was available
to any suitable candidate!
Chas had apparently pricked up his ears at this news. Did the lama think that n
would qualify? He admitted that he wasnt a young man at nearly fifty, but he still had
expectations of another twenty or thirty years! This had sent the ancient fellow into such
a fit of chuckling, that Chas had visions of him dying laughing right there before his eyes
- and taking all his vast store of enlightenment with him!
However, the upshot of the entire thing was that the lama was quite amenable to
the idea. !f Chas were to broach the matter with the Sages, they would probably be only
too pleased to grant his request! Hed already given his name to Chas, and was ready and
willing to cooperate in the ritual whenever the Sages summoned him to their presence.
Thus, as Chas intimated to Drew and Errol, he could hardly contain himself until their next
meeting a couple of days hence, in order to lodge his request!
But why wait till then, Chas?" asked Drew. Weve come to collect you at Avistars
request, to take you back to the lodging-house! Hell probably be back with the girls by
the time we get there, so why not ask him to put your request in straight away? He has
the ear of the Sages at an) time, old mate! !td be no problem to him!"
Drews right on, Prof!" urged Errol. You wanna hit Avistar with this request ]ust as
soon as we get back to the apartment, buddy. !m sure hell fix it for you!"
They had no small difficulty in dragging the professor away from Queng However,
they finally managed it, and this time they had no trouble locating their ship either, since
it was right alongside the elevator portal on the roof. As they winged back to the apart-
ment, Chas chatted away ninteen to the dozen about all the new and wondrous exhibits
hed inspected during their absence.
Nan! Ye wouldnae believe the mairvellous things Ahve seen ower this last day or
so! Why! Theyve even got airtifacts frae Nairs in there! As Ah live an breathe, Ahm no
pulling yer laig!" he cried as Errol gave him a shrewd sidelong look. Why, theyve even
goat the /uIII s! o assorted devils andemons such as we encoontered on oor way here!
!t was awful uncanny peerin back at them through the glaiss cases! They looked as ef
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they were aboot tae ]ump oot at me!" He shuddered involuntarily at the recollection of his
narrow escape whilst one had led him hypnotized to the edge of the chasm.
Drew was interested at his remark. The 1uII seI, did you say, Chas? How many
different specimens were there then? TnI? FIv? Tn?"
Hiell, n!" said the professor. Ahd say there were more like aboot //!n I !waIn!)
o the heedious creatures - an every one of èm /In! !a !n IaIs!! All sairts and sizes
o the bluidy thengs! Ah wouldnae worry tae much aboot haeing wiped them deevils oot,
Andrae! That was ainly n species! There twa more a damned sight DIggI!"
He would have rattled on about the other astounding displays hed inspected but
suddenly they were home and Avistars ship was already parked beside the balcony. The
professor was the first to exit their craft, and headed off inside at full speed.
The old guy sure doesnt let the goddamn grass grow under his feet does he!"
observed Errol with a smile. But ! do hope Avistars able to set the deal up for him. !td
come in really handy to have all that know-how" along for the ride when we go on this
Nission !mpossible" in a coupla daystime!"
Drew paused and frowned as he was climbing out of the ships port. Howdya
mean, mate? Mission Impossible"? !d say itll be a bloody dead-set certainty, myself,
old son! Naybe wed better leave you here if !na!s all the positivity you can muster!"
Only ]oking, buddy!" grinned Errol quickly, but Drew noted it took an effort.
As they entered the large clear-crystal doors into the big lounge room, Avistar was
already having his ear well and truly chewed by an eager Chas, and the two young women
were lolling about wearily on a large settee. Drew stooped and gave Narianne a great kiss
and a hug, then Errol did likewise with Hazel.
Whew! What a long run out we had today!" sighed Narianne. we thought it was
going to last forever!" She was quite shocked when drew told her theyd been out for
three Edenan day-periods". Youre KIIng me!" she gasped. No wonder were both
starving to death!"
Yair!" said Drew, that makes /uI of us! Youd think theyd at least have provi-
sioned those ships wouldnt you?"
Tn) aI!" said Avistar, over his shoulder. All you had to do was think Food
and it would have been served up there and then!"
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Drew fell back aghast at his own stupidity. Nw he tells us!" he groaned. Well why
the hell didnt you con]ure some tucker up for the girls, then, old mate?"
But Avistar didnt answer him. He was far too busy answering the persistent profes-
sor! Yes, Charles," he was saying, !m sure the Sages have aIIa) received your
request by now without being asked by me! !f you think about Queng Lobsang much
harder, !m sure the DaIaI Lama will hear you in Tibet - or wherever n is now!"
He was in Aus!IaIIa the last time ! heard of the poor guy!" put in Drew. Pity we
cant go and sort those Chinese invaders out! ! hear theyre wrecking his palace with their
tourists!"
After a grand feast served up by the two charming houris they had met before, They
all retired to their respective beds to catch up on lost sleep, all except for Chas, that is. He
was busily tootling around with his beloved holographic-image pro]ector. He had found
out something during his stay in the College of Sages which had utterly delighted him, and
wanted to try it out in private before he showed it to his friends. The results of his experi-
ments thrilled him so much that he had to fight with himself not to rush around the
apartment awakening everyone. He would have to wait until the mInIng then hed
really shake Drew and Errol rigid with his discovery!
* * *
The next day" or period" found them all gathered around the large table en]oying
what passed for DIaK/as! in Agartha. Errol and Drew were exchanging some light
hearted banter about the rather exotic food they were eating by using names they were
both more accustomed to hearing at breakfast time.
Hey! Drew!" chaffed Errol, "Would you pass over the tomato ketchup, please, ! ]ust
cant eat my steak and eggs without it!".
"No worries, old mate!" said Drew, passing him a crystal tumbler of some bright
scarlet effervescent fluid, which tasted rather like a fizzy combination of pineapple ]uice
and port wine. You sure youve had enough of these fried sausages? !ll eat the rest, if
youve had enough!"
Yeah! !ll ]ust fill up the spaces with a couple more fried eggs and another helping
of baked beans!" laughed Errol, dearly wishing !na! was what lay before him instead of the
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plateful of chopped vegetables and fruit.. Even a nice bit of streaky bacon would have
made his day - IIn an aII1
However, there was at least one saving grace. They made excellent DIa in Sham-
ballah, and hed finally managed to explain to the serving girls the principles of !as!Ing it
until it was nice and brown! So they all filled up with IaI hot Du!!I toast plastered
with a sort of pureed fruit ]am, that tasted uncannily like marmalade!
The girls had even taken to breaking chunks of the sweet bread into bowls of cold
milk as a replacement for the breakfast cereal they were both used to having for break-
fast.
Chas was by far the worst off in this ersatz breakfast" business, since he had eaten
salt porridge and a couple of kippers every morning of his life ever since he was a boy,
washed down with a pint mug of scalding tea sweetened with condensed milk!
There was simply nothing remotely IIK kippers on the entire Agarthan menu! Ev-
erything was vegetarian, apart from dairy foods. Happily, hed discovered an extremely
tasty cheeselike substance made from goats" milk - or at least a milch-type quadrupedal
animal that vaguely resembled a goat! So he en]oyed this spread on slices of the bread
they received with the assorted veges and fruits. But today he could barely wait for
breakfast to end - s n uI IvaI nIs /an!as!I sI!1
As soon as the serving-wenches had returned and cleared away the breakfast things,
the professor sprang to his feet and addressed them all in a high-pitched excited tone.
Drew and Errol were familiar with this symptom of high excitement in Chas from their
University days. !t generally heralded one of the professors more illuminating lectures.
Ah, noo!!" he cried. Have ! got a grand surprise for ye all, the morn! Yell nae
doobt recall that time when Avastair showed me hoo tae think othengs frae the far deestant
past an then be able tae tak a wee look at èm withe holograiph gadget?" He looked
around them all and they nodded. Weel, last nicht" - or whataiver ye want tae call
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bedtime here in this place o perpaitual daylicht - Ah sat an thocht aboot what itd be like
noo, withe added benefit o the VIII. Nebbe it might be posseeble tae reach intae ns
aIn mIn and recall thengs frae ns aIn pas! an display !nm as holographs?"
How did you go, then, Chas?" asked Drew suddenly, showing a spark of keen inter-
est in what had hitherto seemed to have become regarded as Chass boring hobby-
horse" sub]ect.
Hey! Yan!" said Errol, in ill-feigned enthusiasm. What about giving us a bit of a
demo, Prof?" !n his own mind, he anticipated having his socks bored off by a series of
tedious snapshot visions from the dear old Profs dull-as-ditchwater pimply youth as an
undergraduate at Edinburgh.
Aye!" said Chas, producing the holographic remote from his pocket, Ah was hopin
that ye might ask me !na!! Noo, mah bonnie lads ]ust feast yer eyes on !nIs!"
They all watched as the usual darkish, almost cubic cloud of plasmic material began
to form, and as it steadily began to clear, Lo and Behold! !nstead of a scene from chass
youth they saw two very gawky and lanky youths, muffled up to the eyebrows with thick
winter woolies and Doctor Who-type knitted scarves, running around a snow-covered
University quadrangle pelting each other with snowballs.
They were both laughing and giggling like a pair of girls, as the snowballs knocked
their wooly beanies off or plastered around their earholes. The shorter of the two had his
horn-rimmed glasses knocked off, and it was as he bent to grope after them in the snow,
that the others recognized him as none other than Errol! A yell of laughter arose from the
two girls as they recognized the pimply bespectacled kid!
Hazel almost fell out of her seat laughing. Oh Croikey, Chas!" she gasped. You
dudnt ]est heppen to thunk of a way to make pn!-pIun!s of these views, whoile you
were et ut, did you? Oill tike half a dozen copies of !nus n for starters!"
Yeah!" chuckled Narianne. Hoos aboot trying to put them onto those crystal
video-things? ! really gotta get me a copy of this!"
Even Avistar was now smiling in amusement at the visions of these teenage models
of awkwardness Chas was now producing directly from his mind of various embarrassing
encounters hed had with them during their early years at Edinburgh, but the professors
crowning achievement was yet to come. After giving them several occasions for further
mirth but in which the two sub]ects of his fun were now themselves grinning, even if a
little sheepishly, he suddenly /Iung awa) !n Im! and continued now to treat them to
a brief but beautiful tour of Edinburgh and its surrounding Scottish scenery as he himself
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vividly recalled it so faithfully in his memory! Oddly enough, Chas never featured himself
in any of the scenes, many from his own youth, as could be divined from the dress of the
people and the vehicles on the streets. Drew and Errol were totally staggered that Chas
had become so accomplished at the production of these holographic images - entirely
and directly from his mind! Hw !n nII I n I!7 Avistar himself was quite aston-
ished too, as he realized that his willing pupil had attained to such an adept degree of
phsycic visualization!
But how can you do it straight out of your head like this?" asked Errol, utterly
baffled. ! thought you could only pick up this stuff with the remote, Prof?"
Aye! Weel, ye see Errol." Chas said, The theng is that yon device is seemply for
pickin up whats squirreled awa in yon College! Hoo dye think they could hae collected
a these scenes? Ye canna pick any o these memories up in any library, other than whats
en here!" He tapped his finger against his temple. Sae ye can see hoo yon Remote-
control is of nae value at a for this sort o theng!"
Well, ! reckon thats a ripper talent youve got there, professor!" said Drew, with a
goodly measure of respect. And ! take my hat of to you, sir! You can still run bloody rings
round us when it comes to putting your mind to things! Good on you, professor!" This
was heartfelt praise indeed and Chas felt suitably rewarded by Drews kind and, for a
change, Isp!/uI words!
By the way, sir," Drew added. ! notice that you havent included )uIsI/ in any of
these pickies? Any special reason?"
Chas then explained that it was because he was showing only what he had seen
through nIs wn )s, which automatically ruled himself out of his own visions. The only
occasions hed seen himself were whilst shaving in his bathroom mirror, or whilst towelling
himself down after a shower. He hardly thought they wanted to see those views! Then
followed a chorus of Aw! Why not?" and Give us a look, Prof!"
Avistar also complimented the professor most heartily upon his powers of dogged
application. !f you dont mind, Charles," he said. ! would like to bring this excellent show
of direct memory-visual pro]ection to the attention of the Sages when ! see them tomor-
row, if ! may. ! believe not only that they will be most pleasantly surprised by your
undoubted mastery of this new-found skill, but that they will also find it an excellent
appurtenance to the success of the Nission." He patted Chas upon the shoulder in a
congratulatory fashion. Then he turned to the others.
No doubt you will be wondering why ! am seeing the Sages tomorrow instead of
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the following day?" he continued. Well. Let me enlighten you. ! have had a message
from them that they are ready now to implant their message into your minds, and, in view
of the necessity for you all to be transferred back to your own Outer World bodies, and the
fact that you are all now at something of a loose end, they have brought forward your
Nission date by a few periods. You will now be travelling to the external surface the day
after tomorrow after you have regained the feeling of your former bodies again.
You will be given a maximum period of sleeping-rest prior to your departure, so
that you will not tire too quickly after arrival at your goal. So you will have the hitherto
unheard-of privilege of sleeping in the great Reception Chamber of the Sages tomorrow!
You may feel yourselves highly honoured indeed! !f you have any questions now is the
time to ask them! You will have enough to occupy your minds tomorrow, my friends, ! can
vouchsafe you all that much!"
Drew was the first to quizz him. How are we going to be transferred, Avistar?" he
asked, wondering if it would be another amazing physical, fleshly transference by the
Sages, like that of the two girls directly from Glengarry.
Oh, you will be taken up in one of the ships," replied the Avallahan. But you will not
be alone, since ! am appointed to accompany you personally throughout the Nission. !n
addition, we will also be accompanied by a fleet of a hundred of our larger spacecraft.
They are equipped to counter any attacks that might be launched against us by any of
your Earth nations. We hope this will not occur of course, but, given the acute volatility of
some of your military chiefs, we cannot afford to take too many chances. Any other
questions?" He glanced around their slightly worried faces. You really need fear no
harm, you know. We shall have complete vril shielding, both around the ship and about
ourselves individually. We will all be totally invulnerable to any weapons that might be
foolishly launched at us!"
This eased their minds considerably. Now Errol stuck up a hand. Whose going to do
all the talking, Avistar? Drew, or yourself, or D!n of you, maybe?"
You will aII get to speak!" said their mentor."! shall only speak if there is any hitch in
the proceedings or if addressed, otherwise, it is the wish of the Sages that you should do
all the speaking 1n Iurn. This is to demonstrate that you are all of one mind, since each
of you represents a separate individual nation of the Earth. We have wished that there
were more of you - / I//In! IaIaI IIgIns - but alas, Narianne is the only one a little
different to the other four of you, so that will have to suffice."
Hazel was next with a question that bothered them all. Sorry to sound loike a wit
blenkut, Evistar, but what heppens uf any of us forgit their loines?"
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Avistar smiled at this."Do not concern yourself, Hazel! Once the message has been
implanted in your consciousness, you will n! D aDI to forget it. The entire message will
be programmed into your deepest thought-centres. However, your minds will be subcon-
sciously triggered by this same programming when it is the turn of an / )u to speak
separately. !t must be made clear that you are entirely of one mind on this proposed
scheme to rescue your world from the lunacy of some of its occupants!
As to the content of the message. That will be revealed to you tomorrow before it
is implanted. !f, for any personal reason, any one among you does not agree with any
specific part of it, you will be given the opportunity to state what you find offensive or
unacceptable, and where possible, should others among you feel the same, it will either
be amended - or the ob]ectors will be left out of the Nission group. But ! feel confident
that ! know you all sufficiently by now to believe that all of you will be in full agreement
with it. Have you any further questions?"
Now Drew put up his hand again. Tell me, Avistar," he said. What will happen to us
a/!I our Nission is completed? ! mean will we be brought back here, or will we be
returned directly to our home, or homes, up on the surface? ! reckon well all have
earned a bloody break after such a task as this one is completed, dont you?"
He looked determinedly into Avistars eyes, willing him to give them all a straight
and truthful answer. He trusted him, but he wasnt to sure about the Sages.
Avistar treated Drew to an equally keen stare. You pose a very interesting ques-
tion, Drew. ! wish ! could answer it as directly as you have presented it to me. But it is one
that only the Sages can answer.
For myself, even though it would sadden me to lose the pleasure of your company,
! would certainly have you returned directly to your home - or homes - although ! under-
stand that these four" - he indicated Errol, Chas, and the two young women - were your
guests prior to commencing the expedition, so ! would have you all returned to )uI home
in Australia, as soon as a concrete agreement was settled between the !nner and Outer
Earth regarding the PnwaI PI)!.
Unfortunately, however, it is not m) decision to make. Nor has that point been
mentioned, or even considered by the Sages to my knowledge. ! would suggest that you
broach the sub]ect yourself directly with them tomorrow. ! feel, however, that they have
somehow come to the general assumption that you would all prefer to remain here and
en]oy an almost unlimited lifespan, free from all the hazards and dangers of the world you
left behind !"
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He paused and fingered his lip thoughtfully.
Dear me!" he murmured in some consternation. This is a rather awkward turn of
events! But happily not an insoluble one! However, you are most certainly n! our pIIsn-
Is so you cannot be detained here against your will. Ys1 ! would certainly raise an
s!!I the the issue with them - and the aIIII in the piece the better! .. 1/ )u !aK m)
pIn!, DIw1
This final remark of Avistars was made in such a quiet tone that Drew only ]ust
managed to pick it up. Obviously Avistar had intended that any telepathic eavesdropper
should not hear it. This gave Drew considerable food for thought. Could Agartha be a
BIg BI!nI 1s LIs!nIng state, as Avallah had been under Naxos? He took care not to
think too heavily about !na!. He might get hopping mad again and inadvertently broad-
cast his supicions telepathically to one and all! He would have to play his mental cards
very close to his chest tomorrow, when he discussed this with the Sages. But one thing
was for sure. N pIaIIang, I!I/I, IIn-Ia guaIan! / a DII! P!uIn Hm - n
DI) MIssIn1 Per1od!
Having given Drew his rather ambiguous answer, the lofty Avallahan told them that
he now had other business to attend to elsewhere. They would perhaps be well advised
to relax and rest as much as possible for the remainder of the time until he called in to take
them all to the Sages Palace early on the morrow.
So they spent the remainder of their day in allowing Chas to experiment with an-
other brilliant holographic idea hed had. Now he was searching !nII minds for scenes
from !nII pasts - and with a good deal of success too, ]udging by the squeals of delight
the holographic visualizations of these foraged second-hand memories produced! Cer-
tainly, some of these wI a tad or two off the mark, but this was simply due to imperfect
recollections in the minds of his guinea-pig audience. But by and large, his little experi-
mental performance of mental magic was a howling success!
As Errol said on behalf of them all: Hey! Hey! Tell you what, Prof! With a talent like
that, dear old sir, you could make a goddamn fortune back in the States! Forget about the
University! Youd really wowem in the aisles on Tv! Youd have your own nationwide
magic holo-show in nothing flat! ! kid you not, old buddy!"
Following Avistars sound advice, they all retired to their darkened sleeping cham-
bers quite early. However, surprisingly to Chas, there was no sign of any hanky-panky"
between the two pairs of young lovers. !n fact, thus far their love affairs had never
developed to the actual physical relationships that he would have expected and had seen
during his days at Edinburgh University. He was not to know of course, that the two young
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women were of that rapidly-disappearing morally strong breed he assumed had long since
vanished from the Earth. Apart from Drew and Nariannes close encounter in the spirit
that moonlit night at the outcrop in back of Glengarry, neither pair had had any physical
sexual relations at all, beyond the normal accepted kissing and canoodling in which all
young lovers engage.
Oddly, this same phenomenon was passing through Drews mind as he waited for
sleep to envelop him. His relationship with Narianne was totally different to any hed
experienced before during his university years, and he knew it was the same with Errol
and Hazel. !t was difficult to comrehend, for they were both normal heterosexual young
men, with the normal healthy libidos that one would associate with such red-blooded
young bucks, as their several university conquests could testify. Yet, inexpicably even to
themselves, with !ns two girls, they exercised great restraint.
Whether it was their unearthly circumstances or their close association with so many
spiritual and Godly people, or simply the girls own attitudes regarding their virginity, they
had no idea, but there it was. They were simply quite happy to continue following lives
of celibacy, and neither experienced any overwhelming primal sexual urges. Drew had
even wondered once, in an idle moment, if the Agarthans were perhaps slipping some-
thing into their food and drink! But after some deep thought, he eventually came to the
conclusion that the restraint came from within nImsI/. He simply respected Narianne too
much to force his attentions upon her.
The same was true of Errol, whom Drew remembered only too well as being re-
garded as a real predatory, girl-chasing Wolf", back in their time together at University.
They had both undergone some kind of enormous moral metamorphosis ever since the
expedition had begun.
They both had deep, abiding and respectful love for their women. As far as they
were concerned, their relationships with their lovers would remain as they were until they
were properly married - for marriage was now the ambition of both couples.
But first, they had to get all this Outer Earth Nission" business out of the way.
Drew had a vague sense of uncertainty about the whole business, but he still believed that
the Sages were fair-dinkum in their altruistic ob]ectives toward the Outer Earth and its
inhabitants. He also worried more than a little about Avistars nebulous response to his
query regarding their return to life on the outer world after the Nission. Could it be that
the Sages had /uI!nI plans for them after this initial Nission? !f they I, he had no real
ob]ection to assisting them further - especially if all went according to plan with this first
stage.. !t would be truly fantastic to be a part of the great work that would soon follow
such an acceptance!
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He could already imagine the incredible scenes of colossal industy and amazing
technological achievement that would be involved in the construction of the subterannean
cavern worlds and the deep ocean-floor domed city-worlds! Yes! He would definitely love
to be part of !na!! And to know that it was all being done without a single red cent
changing hands, and entirely free from any form of political interference or corporate graft
and corruption whatsoever!
Unless the Sages were so misguided as to entrust or subcontract any part of the
work to those large dog-eat-dog, wheeler-dealer corporations that currently undertook
the fulfillment of ma]or contracts for governments around the globe. Somehow, though,
he felt sure the Sages were a lot shrewder than that!
The main thing was that both he and Errol wuI require a reasonable period of time
out with Narianne and Hazel in order to revisit his home at Glengarry, then to get married
and to en]oy a well-earned six-month honeymoon of pure wedded bliss, perhaps con-
]ointly, in some peaceful tropical hideaway far removed from the hustle and bustle of the
world. And likewise, that the professor snuI be allowed to return to his beloved Scot-
land and the hallowed halls of Edinburgh. Not to mention with the added bonus of all his
new wealth of knowledge of unknown new sciences and the IaI !Iu!n about the !nner
Earth (aDu! wnIn n In!n ! wII! a !nIK DK} - pIus his additional wondrous
psychic gift of VIII power!
Everything tomorrow would be entirely conditional upon these points being satisfac-
torily agreed to by the Sages - and even sIgn In !nII DI if necessary! Avistar could
be their witness, since, being an emmissary of Avallah, he was n! the hired servant of the
Sages, nor beholden to them in any way.
With this problem finally sorted out in his mind, Drew at last fell into that deep and
utterly peaceful slumber which is reserved for those with a ]ustified and clear conscience.
By the seventh part of the following period - or in plain English, by around eight-
thirty the next morning" - they were all entering the great Audience Chamber of the
Sages Palace. This time, however, as Errol whispered softly to Drew, the Sages must
have been navIng a DI! / a LI-1n, since their platformed circular couch up on the round
dais was, for once, unoccupied! Drew suddenly realized, with an inward grin, that hed
somehow gained the vague impression that they never left it, and lived, ate and slept
there permanently! Avistar said that they would doubtlessly be along shortly, so they
might as well make themselves comfortable upon the large padded pouf-style stools that
were scattered around the chamber.
!nstead of sitting with the others, Drew and Errol wandered over to the spaceship
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decompression-chamber" vessel that still sat alongside the wall of the great chamber.
They looked inside and saw again their original bodies lying in deathlike stillness on their
individual couches, surrounded by intravenous life-support drip-tubes and instrument-
probe cables. But nonetheless, their skins glowed a healthy pink, which was a reassuring
sight. Nor did they appear to have lost any weight or muscle-tone. Hazel and Narianne,
finally succumbing to feminine curiosity, soon followed them over.
Thenk God wure stull here!" murmured Hazel, eyeing her naked earthly form with
a touch of acute embarrassment. Et leaust, were stull numan in there!"
Narianne nodded, but she was even more embarrassed - especially with the two
men standing beside them - and tugged at Hazels arm. Yeah! Raight!" she said. Noo
lets go sit doon again! AII / us, pIease!" Drew grinned at Errol, who winked back at
him, then they followed the girls back to their seats. They had barely resumed their
places when a voice addressed them from the Sages raised dais. They looked up quickly
and saw that the trinity of ancient sages had somehow materialized whilst they werent
looking, and that their leading spokesman was speaking to them!
Greetings, our dear friends!" he smiled down benignly upon them all. !t is indeed
a great pleasure to us to see you all once again gracing our Chamber!" He gave a little bow
as did his two colleagues simultaneously. The six visitors stood and bowed back at them.
Then, seeing that they were at a loss what they should do next, the spokesman Sage
invited them all up to sit with them around the big circular table.
We might as well make ourselves comfortable, he said, for we have a great deal
of ground to cover today!"
!t was then that, much to their surprise, the five realized the ancient Sage was
addressing them vIDaII) - and in fluent, modern colloqial English! They hastened to
mount the dais and, when were seated comfortably on the circular couch, he went on
with his remarks, but obviously in a state of barely suppressed excitement.
We must seek your forgiveness for keeping you waiting today," he said, but a
matter has ]ust arisen which has caused us to somewhat revise our plans for your mission!
Not, let me hasten to add, one which adversly affects it. On the contrary, if anything, we
believe that this new development is one that will facilitate matters enormously, and also
greatly increase the likelihood of you reaching a maximum audience! !t has ]ust been
brought to our attention, within the last part-period, that a great sporting event is about
to commence within the next two periods. One that will focus the attention of practically
every family upon the outer Earth upon their television recievers. !t occurs at four-orbit
intervals, we are told, and is known as -"
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The Olympic Games!" interrupted Drew, enthusiastically. Every nation on Earth
watches !na! event, regardless of the time - whether its day or night in their region of the
globe! Practically everyone who owns a television receiver will be watching the big
OpnIng CImn)! !ts the biggest single event that interests most of the people in the
world! !ts a bloody DIIIIIan! idea, Your Eminence! Why w never thought of it, ! ]ust
havent a flaming clue! Good on you, sir!"
Avistar glanced reprovingly at Drew for his rudeness and his language. But the Sage
was evidently pleased by Drews obvious delight, as were his brethren.
Thank you, Drew!" he said, beaming cheerfully. We are indeed happy to see that
this pleases you as greatly as it did ourselves! And we were especially amazed to see that
it is to take place in the homeland of the ancient Grecian Olympian gods, and will com-
mence upon the very mountain of Olympus itself! !t can be nothing less than a Heaven-
sent augury of our coming success! The Great Creator Spirit is clearly in agreement with
our plan for the salvation of His favoured planet! Now we must apply ourselves to the
preparations without any further delay!"
He then went on to tell them how they would each be implanted with the entire
speech they were to make, and that their minds would be programmed to ]oin in the
speaking at the precisely correct point. The ob]ective he reminded them was to get the
crucial words out over all the networks at the same time, before the governments had
time to recover from the shock and react by shutting off the power to the transmitters.
Even if this happened, they would still have a VIII power network in place all around the
globe, which would support the broadcast power n I!s wn with or without electrical
current, until the message had been delivered! A hundred ships would accompany their
own and would take up strategic stations at closely equidistant points around the globe, in
order to creat a separate diffusion network for their broadcast. Their actual location
would be in a completely isolated area where they could not be interrupted or attacked.
As far as the !nner Earth experts were aware, the vril power radiation was totally beyond
any detactable transmission wavelength known to any Earthly military detectors, so they
need fear no aerial attacks by airplanes or guided missiles. !n any event they would be
shielded by the same power that they were transmitting upon. The region chosen for
their broadcast site was an exposed plateau high in the Himalayan mountains, so that
atmospheric interference would be reduced to almost nil. Besides, they would be /IIm
from a ship close at hand, which would then relay the signal to all the other ships on their
locations around the world, who would the rediffuse it out over a very wide local area.
!t would be rather a pity, but they intended to break into the Olympic Games Televison
broadcast at a significantly psychological point in the proceedings, so that the viewers
would be held spellbound for a long enough time to make them desire to hear the mes-
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sage in its entirety.
They envisaged, he said, that once the message was through, its content would be
subliminally absorbed into the minds of the listeners and viewers, so that they would recall
every word of it, and react accordingly by producing a strong mental wave of either assent
or disapproval. These two conflicting waves would be picked up by the undetectable
ships stationed nearby, and the results would then be compared. As soon as all the results
were in, either for or against the pro]ect, they would be relayed back to themselves here
in the Sages Palace.
After the broacast had been relayed and diffused and the mental responses of its
viewers and hearers collected, the original Olympic spectacle would continue to be broad-
cast as before, and few would actually be aware that it had even been interrupted. The
entire broadcasting procedure should occupy not more than twenty minutes of Earth
time!
Here the Sage smiled at them all rather cunningly.
Thanks to the standardized ponderous form of govern-mental" (an III-nsn !Im
I/ vI !nI was n1} machinery, and its even worse division into separate public-service
departments, which has been adopted by practically every nation on Earth, there is not a
single government in the world that can react fast enough to even cut the power to the
Olympic Stadium in Athens - let alone all the hundreds of television stations and channels
which will be involved in so huge a broadcast as the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony!
But even if there were, n!nIng on the Earths surface can interfere with the VIII power
network which will be reinforcing them! Thus it is self-evident that our planned broad-
cast cannot fail!"
He paused here for a brief breather, and gazed at his audience - no doubt assessing
the effect of this information upon them all.
Now!" said he, Before going any further, ! must ask if any of you have any ques-
tions about any of this thus far? Am ! going to quickly for you? N7 is there any point you
need clarifying?" He looked from one face to another.
But no one had any questions at that stage. They were all to stunned by the
amazingly brilliant simplicity of the whole plan! !t was easier that any had expected!
!n that case, ! believe we should now pause for a little refreshment, before continu-
ing on to the next stage."said the Sage, And ! will then hand over the briefing to one of
my colleagues! ! must confess that this verbalization is a very dry business indeed, ! am
sorry if ! have not kept up my practice of it as ! perhaps should!"
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Here he paused again and clapped his hands as a signal to the serving-girls. Then
he resumed his casual chat.
However ! must confess that ! find talking helps keep the mind clear for !nInKIng,
and permits one to consider those thoughts more carefully before airing them.!" Then
he stopped his sentence in mid-flight, and stared closely at Drew.
Speaking of !nInKIng - or should that perhaps be the other way around? ! sense,
Drew that you have something that you wish to say to myself and my brethren. !f so then
this would be an excellent time to - how do you say it - g! I! // )uI ns! Yes?"
Yes, ! do!" Drew replied. And this is a matter that must be resolved before we go
any further. ! am extremely concerned about what is to happen to us after we have
carried out your commission tomorrow or the day after! All five of us are rapidly growing
weary and are in serious need of a period of rest and relaxation.
!n addition, Errol and myself are desirous of being married to these two young
women, Hazel and Narianne, and then of en]oying a relaxing holiday together out upon
our own world! This is our Earthy custom and we seek your personal cooperation and
guarantee in this matter! We are prepared to follow through with our Nission upon your
behalf, but we first need to be fully assured by you that once our Nission is completed we
will be allowed to return to our own world and to our own families, even if only for a
relatively short period of time!"
Hmm! 1 s!" said the Sage, eyeing Drew as if in a new light. And pray, what would
your reaction be if we were to, say, I/us this request? What if we deemed it InappIpII-
a! at this time to permit you return to your outer world on this HIIa), Drew? What
would your reaction be if we DIugn! )u DaK nI after your Nission, and gave you
an!nI n to carry out. What then, my friend?"
Drew felt the heat begin to rise within him. He struggled to keep his thoughts
private. Was this arrogant puffed-up bastard taunting him to see how far hed go? Or was
he simply curious how such an upstart little bunch of Surface Dwellers could argue the
toss with him? Then it suddenly occurred to him that this might ]ust be a follow-up to the
AngI-Managmn! theyd told Avistar to straighten him up on. He recalled how hed
vowed to play his cards close to his chest, when this occasion came! And so he now did
exactly that! He could play poker with the best of them!
Hmmm!" said Drew, mimicking the Sages own ploy. That would indeed present a
rather sad situation for us! Especially as protected servants of the Great Creator Spirit,
and having come so far in deep trusting faith in yourself and your colleagues! We would
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naturally feel that our trust had been betrayed, and that this whole inner world must
therefore be a place of wickedness instead of goodness, and that you yourelves were the
servants noI / !n GIa! CIa!I 5pIII!, but of 5aIan!
Our only recourse in such an event would be to call upon the Great Spirit to utterly
destroy this nest of vipers, and set us free! Regardless of your much vaulted VIII power!
Tell me, O Wise One - would your VIII withstand the fearsome power of the Great Spirit of
Almighty God? What do you think, O great and mighty Sage?
He was nearly ranting like an evangelist now, and his eyes shone with an inner
fanatical glow that none of his friends had ever seen before.
! am suI of this!" bellowed Drew into the Sages face, that He would not stand
idly by and permit such wicked duplicity to go unpunished! Perhaps the same terrible fate
might then overtake you and your brethren as that which befell yonder evil wretch, Naxos!"
By this time, Drew could plainly see the terror he had aroused in the soul of the
Sage. The Sage had already scanned the minds of Drews companions and read there
that they feared he might bring down the wrath of the Great Creator Spirit upon them all.
That same terror was also very plainly written upon the faces of his two brethren. He
visibly began to quail before Drews righteous wrath.
!t was then that Drew knew he had won hands down in this little hand of spiritual
poker, and that his bluff had paid off. He decided that the time had now come to ease his
foot off the loud pedal. The Sage, who was filled with fear for his life, knew nothing of
Drews exultant frame of mind. For once, his own mind was focussed only on how he
could avoid the coming wrath of the Great Spirit.
However," Drew continued, in a surprisingly quiet tone. That is nothing more than
an IIIus!Ia!In of what mIgn! perhaps befall anyone who was foolish enough to try to keep
us here against our will. However, since we have only the greatest !Ius! in your concern
for our welfare and your goodwill toward us, as you have already thus far exhibited, we
Knw that you will gladly set aside a ship to return us to my home upon the completion of
this exciting Nission. For my own part, and ! think ! may also speak for these my
companions, when ! say that ! would look forward with great zeal to being of /uI!nI
/u!uI assIs!an in your endeavours on behalf of the people and the Great Spirits other
creations upon the outer surface world!
So come, my Lord Sages! Let us all strike up a friendly binding compact here and
now, before the Great Creator Spirit that it shall be thus and so, and let Avistar be our
independent witness! Do you three so agree?"
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Aye! We do!" cried the three Sages in a unisoned chorus of great relief. Let Avistar
draft it up now and we shall verbally sign it together!"
They then sat together stipulating the points as they decided and agreed them,
whilst Avistar recorded all the details of their contract. And when he had finished record-
ing and locking all their solemn oaths into an indelible tablet of crystal, he set his own
mental and verbal seal upon it all. Then, after each party had received a copy of the block,
a courier was despatched with the original tablet to the great Agarthan Hall of Records
where it would be retained in safe and inviolable custody, for all Eternity if need be.
Thus the whole problem was resolved to everyones complete and relieved satisfac-
tion, and they were now ready to move forward to the next stage.
This phase involved the defining and refining of the points that were to be ex-
pounded in their address to the outer people, and their suitable phraseology. There were
some thirty or more points to be covered, and these needed to be made as clear and
simple as possible. Another aspect was one that Drew raised when he pointed out that if
one single individual among them were to verbalize the entire proposition, there was a
likelihood of it becoming tedious and boring, so he suggested that all five of them should
each speak some part of it. He himself would open with the introduction, and also close
it with the conclusion. Also it would be necessary for the Sages to arrange for all dialogues
to be free of specific accents, especially since he imagined that they would broadcast it in
such a way that each viewer or listener could hear the whole speech translated into his or
her native tongue by secret powers that the Sages possessed.
All of this was agreed to without argument or demure by the Trinity of Sages. They
were quite prepared to leave the actual deliverance of their message up to Drews better
]udgment, and the overall logistics and execution of the Nission itself under Avistars full
control.
There was, however, one other interesting and exciting feature that they now wished
to a to the delivery of the speech, and this was concerned with accompanying vIsuaI
nIgIapnI pI!Ins of some of the features of their proposed programme. Avistar
had informed them of the professors wonderful new faculty for pro]ecting mental images
from the mIns / !nIs without having to have any recourse to the great Library of the
College of Sages. This was indeed a rare talent, and it could be a valuable asset.
Therefore, if Chas had no ob]ection, they would like to test out his skill by allowing
him to pick up" and pro]ect their own mental images of how they themselves ]ointly
envisaged the work would proceed in constructing the great subterranean caverns and
undersea domes. They were all gifted with extremely powerful imaginations as befitted
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their status, and could think in perfect concert, so he should have little difficulty in picking
up the visual concepts directly from their minds.
!f this trial was successful, they would then seal these visions inside the professors
memory, so that he could automatically pro]ect them in correct sequence as large, clear
visual forms capable of being picked up by their attendant ships cameras. Then they
would be relayed, along with the images and voices of the speakers, to the rediffusion-
ships On-Station" around the worlds ma]or centres, and thence down to the local Tv
channels in their areas.
The test which then followed was incredibly successful. Chas had no difficulty what-
soever in perceiving the envisioned images in the Sages minds of the various proposed
stages in the construction of the new city-states. And when he pro]ected these as holo-
graphic moving pictures, they looked absolutely real and true to life! The whole pro]ect at
once took on a fascinating aspect that even Drew and the other three had themselves
never imagined. Their own first impressions upon seeing these incredible living" scenes
were that they simply na to be participants in this wonderful new pro]ect!
As a final personal `filip to each of these construction sequences, Chas himself added
a closing vision of the completed cities a!uaII) upI D) appaIn!I) IIv InnaDI!an!s
going about their affairs among the city plazas, or out working or relaxing in the open, and
apparently sunny, surrounding meadowed, wooded, and well-watered countryside. He
even included such details as commuter-cars entering and exiting coonecting tunnels to
and from other similar states! True, he had sn much of this during their own earlier
travels, but he saw no harm in adding a few of these recollections to the overall mix. As
far as the Sages were concerned, the professor had attained top-billing in their estima-
tion. His contribution was first-rate, and neatly rounded out the entire presentation to
perfection!
After this visual material was safely sealed into the professors consciousness, the
Sages declared a short break for food and drink before the final installation of the great
Nessage into all their minds. Once that was completed, it would be a mere matter of
synchronizing the spoken words of the Nessage to the corresponding images in Chass
mind. Then they could begin the far more ma]or and dangerous procedure of transferring
the minds and spirits of the five Outer Earthers back into their own natural earthly bodies
again.
Their luncheon was again more of a Danqu! than a mere meal-break, but they
made the most of it, since they had no idea when they would get to eat a decent meal
again! Drew and Errol, together with Chas, each secretly hoped it would take place
around Joans kitchen table at Glengarry - and with a much more substantial ma! con-
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tent, too! However, they took care not to allow even the faintest hint of this hankering to
escape their minds - to be picked up by the Sages - or even Avistar!
By this time in their stay in Agartha, they had discovered how to cloak their more
intimate thoughts from any prying Shamballahan minds. Even those of the Sages them-
selves! !t was no great feat if one knew how to do it, and it was clear that all the locals,
including the great Sages and Avistar, were all perfectly capable of concealing their private
cogitations whenever they deemed it necessary.
What was Sauce for the Goose, was Sauce for the Gander" too!
However, even in the painful absence of T-bone steaks, fried hamburgers and siz-
zling sausages - not to mention hot French fries - they still managed to thoroughly en]oy
their repast, as did Narianne an Hazel, who were both considerable more vegitarianistically-
inclined than the men since their full psychic liberation. They all felt mildly saddened
when the spokesman Sage clapped his hands smartly together for the serving-girls to
come in and clear the remains of the banquet away.
When all this was done, the spokesman Sage now told them all, including Avistar,
that he and his brethren were about to transfer their Nessage in its entirety into their
conscious minds and subconscious minds and that they were to to sit back and allow their
minds to relax completely. After this, they could review it and they could feel free to
ad]ust any sman!I points they felt might give the wrong ideas or implications. But be-
yond that cosmetic aspect of the Nessage, they must stick to the general substance of
what had been implanted. The Nessage itself must remain unaltered in its entirety, and
each portion must be relayed in its correct order. This was why it was being placed into
their subconscious minds as well. That way they would not be able to unthinkingly add,
alter or remove any part of it.
They expected, as the three Sages began to speak a preliminary incantation in a
strange tongue, that they were simply opening up their subconscious minds, and that in a
few moments the chief Sage would begin speaking the Nessage to them, sentence after
sentence. But instead they all felt themselves becoming a little light-headed and giddy,
and they seemed to black-out for a brief instant. Then the curious dizzy spell passed and
they felt fine again. But they remained still, waiting now with closed eyes for him to begin
delivering his Nessage. However, instead the spokesman clapped his hands sharply
together once.
!mmediately, the six of them opened their eyes and peered quizzically at the Sages
who were seated smiling, Buddha-like, before them. Drew stared back at their leader in
puzzlement. He had expected him to have a sheaf of written papers or notes ready in his
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hand, but the Sage ]ust sat regarding him calmly with his empty hands loosely resting
palms upward upon his knees
Nay ! enquire when are you going to begin telling us this Nessage, Lord Sage?"
Drew asked. we are all waiting patiently to hear it!"
The Sage continued to smile calmly back at Drew. !t is aIIa) !I, my young
friend!" he replied, looking around all their puzzled faces. !n a moment you will all sud-
denly remember everything that has been placed in your minds!"
And it was so!
Suddenly Drew felt a great welter of words - Nay! A veritable DIug! - flood into
his mind, and for a moment his senses were awash with them. Then, after another
moment or two the whole thing settled into place together! His thoughts flashed along
the mental sentences which now began to run through his mind and he realized that it it
was all there! He began to speed-read it, as if from an endless tape message. And as he
read the words, he realized all the hard and complex thought and deep consideration that
these three must have put into stringing together this whole wonderful concept that their
Nessage held.
He could see that the others were all sitting ]ust he was himself, absorbing this great
speech of inspiration and promise for all of the surface world, and not merely for its human
population. This was a brand new message of hope for the entirety of all Nature upon the
Earth! As he read on, as also did his companions, he could see the entire commonsense
truth of it all and that Nankind would be a race of utter imbeciles to re]ect such a munifi-
cent offer as the Nessage contained ! !f the Sages and their ilk were allowed to proceed
to put this fantastic, marvellous scheme into effect, it would mean complete renewal and
salvation for all of the Outer Surface and all of its myriad remaining species.
And it would bring a glorious new opportunity for Nankind to begin again, but not
right back at the beginning of their painful climb to their present state of civilization.
They would be able to exchange their entire environment of ever-present natural hazards
and constant concern and fear about lurking catastrophes, as well as their uncertain rela-
tionships with their neighbours, almost at a single stroke.
They could exchange it all for a brand-new lifestyle of complete freedom - not only
from fear, but from all the heavy worries of financial problems, and free themselves for-
ever from the yoke of a host of demanding burdensome public-service departments,
wrangling and lying politicians, tyrannical governments, and despotic rulers too!
This new world offered them the chance to at last IaIIz the hitherto tongue-in-
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cheek" and seemingly unbelievable statement that AII mn aI DIn quaI1 By adopting
this grand new plan they would 1ndeed all become equal! There would be no more
elitist groups of millionaires or fat-cat politicians to bleed them dry or feed off them. This
new world, so wonderfully yet simply envisioned, would be entirely free of the need for
money and its associated twin offspring of debt and avarice. Big business and legalistic
government would disappear to give way to a new and totally simplistic supervisory body
of unpaid elders whose sole ob]ective would be the altruistic service of the needs and
welfare of their own home communities and of the entire health and happiness of all
mankind. As they read on they saw how it could all be put into effect with relatively little
effort and at no cost to Nankind.!
None of them could find any fault with any of the Nessage, so Chas was then invited
to touch heads with the spokesman Sage in order for him to get the clearest possible
mental image of the great works they intended to perform if the outer population ac-
cepted their magnificent offer. Within a few moments the concepts were transferred and
Chas made a few trial-pro]ections to ensure that he had their ideas correctly visualized in
his mind. The Sages were extremely delighted with the holographic images he showed
them all there in the greal audience chamber, for, thanks to the available space above him
and to the power of the vril which caused the holographic pro]ections to show up very
strongly, both in sharpness and detail - and in beautiful, vibrantly beautiful colours
Chass companions were equally amazed and dazzled by what they saw, and it filled
them all with a powerful resolve and determination to make their presentation as strong
and impressive as they possibly could.
xIIn!I) pIu , CnaIIs!" cried the Sage as he and his brethren gave the
professor a round of hand-clapping applause, in which his colleagues also ]oined To which
he responded with a deep bow, quoting something from Shakespeare - or somebody of
his ilk:TIs a pI !nIng, Du! mIn wn1
The leading Sage smiled a little chidingly at him at this. Well - not enI1reIy your
own, my dear Charles! But nonetheless truly excellent!"
Now it was time for the transference of the spirits of the five from their giant Agarthan
forms to those other, almost midget-like, Earthling figures which lay so embarrassingly
naked and intubated in the 1In Lung - as Errol had earlier dubbed the spaceship pres-
sure-chamber.
The Sage drew their attention to the five couches that still stood ranged along the
opposite wall to where the 1In Lung rested. This time, he told them, there would be
no need to intubate their present Agarthan bodies since these would not require any live
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maintenance after their spirits had exited them. They would simply be returned to stock"
in the cold prervation rooms.
As he spoke, the team of five surgeons returned who had transferred them the first
time. They bowed to the Sages and then to their patients Then the five were requested
to take their places upon the couches. The five walked down from the dais, followed by
their hosts and Avistar to meet the doctors. !t was Avistar who supervised the team, and
assured the five friends not to worry. Behind him they could see the trinity of Sages
standing at the front of the dais, smiling benignly down upon them, whilst the surgeons
went across into the pressurized spaceship and checked that all was ready and in order
with their original bodies for the re-entry of their spirits.
This final check was speedily completed and the doctors now emerged to initiate the
actual transference. This time, the five friends knew what to expect, so they felt no fear
as they received their in]ections. Then everything suddenly began to spin wildly and they
felt themselves falling backwards down into the black gulf of an almost deathlike uncon-
sciousness.
At once the surgeons hurried over to the 1In Lung and stood beside the diminu-
tive human forms on the tables to await their reanimation. Soon vital signs began to rise,
and within minutes, blood-pressures and heart-rates had become normal and they were
all breathing for themselves. When it was clear that all five were now fully alive and out of
danger, the tubes and monitors were removed from their bodies and limbs, and they were
modestly covered with sheets. All that remained was for them to awaken naturally after
the shock of transference had worn off. The five adventurers were once more safely back
inside their own natural bodies!
!t was some two or three hours later before they had all awoken again to find
themselves back in their normal frames. Drew was the first to be helped to his feet by two
of the surgeons, and taken out of the spacecraft for a hobble around the thickly careted
floor. !t was strange to be back in his own body again, and quite apart from the pain in his
cramped muscles, he experienced a terrible sense of claustrophobia. His spirit felt far too
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large to fit inside this midget body!
He recalled once being inadvertently locked in a small wardrobe in the dormitory of
his boarding-school at Charters Towers, when he was still a lad of twelve or so. Hed been
hiding from one of his mates, but another kid had unwittingly shut the wardrobe door in
passing. Hed not been discovered for over six hours! He had shouted himself totally
hoarse within the first couple of hours. But since it was a Sports Day and a Parents Day
combined, and the parents of the players had been shouting encouragement to their
young Rugby-playing offspring, no one had heard him through all the din. By the time he
was discovered by another lad, whod come in from outside to get changed for dinner, he
was almost raving mad!
Now he felt that same sense of tight restriction again, but he somehow doubted if
the Sages would let him go on the Nission looking like Avistar! Gradually his limbs
became loosened up again, and his two giant attending surgeons, (I snuI !na! D
surg1caI supporIs7n !nugn! wI)I),} finally let him limp around on his own for a
while. Then they brought out Errol who was suffering from a Charley Horse to end all
Charley Horses in his left leg, and was almost shrieking in agony as they forced him to
walk. He also now sported a handsome I DaI!
Arghhh!" cried Errol at every movement. !ts goddamn agony! Dont you guys
understand a Charley Horse when you see one! Where the hell did you get your Nedical
Certificates, you callous bastards? Off a goddamn cornflake carton? HoIy ToIedo!
ARGGGHHH1 However, his tormentors obviously knew what they were doing, and the
twisted muscle finally sorted itself out again..
Then he saw Drew tottering around the room. Heyl Drew!" he called, Hows it
feel to be folded up inside a goddamn pigmys body?"
! know the feeling only too bloody well!" grinned Drew, who was steadily improv-
ing in both his gait and in the sense of fit" between his spirit and his body. Dont worry,
mate! Youll soon get used to it! Youll flaming well naVe to!"
!n due course they were all out and about, and the Sages Audience chamber was
looking more like the exercise room of an old folks retirement home every minute! Chas
was the only one who seemed to sail through it all without demur. He was almost ]ogging
within seconds of being brought out of the 1In Lung, and he was soon running in place
beside Drew as he still limped painfully around.
Ah tell ye, Andrae, mah wee mannie!" he chaffed. !ts bluidy gIan tae be back in
mae bonnie wee hoose again! But whats the maitter wi ye, laddie? Are ye no verra weel
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or somethin? Yer hoabblinaroond like some dodderin auld cripple! Thats the big draw-
back wi bein such a longshanks! And yon beard doesnae hailp the look o ye! Same as
yer pal Errol, oer yonder. Tn DIggI !n) aII, !n naIII !n) /aII! Aye! Nah auld
daddy was deid richt when he tocht me that!"
Do me a bloody favour, Chas, will you?" gritted Drew. G! DI) Is!!"
Then it occurred to Drew that he hadnt noticed earlier that the bodies of himself
and Errol had both grown DaIs during their spiritual absence in their borrowed giant
Agarthan forms. He caught a glimpse of himself in one of the ships windows as he limped
past and paused to thoughtfully stroke the lank growth of flaxen whiskers that now graced
his own features.
`Hmmm! Not too bad, really! he thought, as he considered his reflection. `Never
thought of a DaI before! 5vn GInDaI1 Then glancing across at Errol, he men-
tally added, Ànd II Tn P! Or should that be ErroI !n P7
Fortunately, the Sages and Avistar were not present to witness this appalling parade
of human cripples - an DaI nIIIs! Upon inquiring from one of the surgeons, Drew
learned they had retired to another ad]oining room to hammer out some final details in
private. However, they were not away long, and by the time the Sages returned everyone
was more or less back to normal again.
Their spokesman addressed them all again, thankfully from the top of the dais, for
some of them could not have possibly managed to ascend the steps yet.
We trust that you have all managed to come through the return ordeal of transfer-
ence with a minimum of suffering, although we can sense that some of you are still pained
and troubled to some degree!" So saying, he stretched forth his hands toward them all
and spoke some words in an arcane, unknown tongue and in a curious droning manner,
rather like that of Buddhist priests of the outer surface.
As he spoke the very air in the great chamber became tangibly charged with the
powerful influence of vril. But this time it was of a healing rather than a destructive kind,
and they all began to feel its radiant soothing effects almost immediately. Their aches and
pains and other feelings of discomfort dissipated rapidly as he droned on in his curious
incantation. Suddenly he stopped and clapped his hands together and - LO! All of them
felt fit and well and completely free of all their former discomforts.
The Sage clapped again and several serving-girls now entered the chamber from a
side doorway, bearing with them new clothes for them all and a fine meal which was set
out upon the central table of the dais. The clothes had obviously been measured and cut
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using their somnolescent bodies as models, for they fitted to perfection. They were all
kitted out with the same sort of garments - a pair of fine, fawn-coloured linen ankle-
length pantaloons, with a sleeveless, tuck-in vest or undershirt to match. These resembled
the tee-shirts the men had originally worn, over which a vee-necked, wide-sleeved pull-on
tunic of a thicker weave was worn.
The tunics were of a light, almost faded denim-blue shade, which went very well
with the pale fawn of their pants. Around their waists were wrapped wide cummerbunds
of the same material, but in pale fawn, which were held together apparently in the same
way as velcro, but using electrostatic means. Their feet were covered by warm socks
which were pulled up over the cuffs of the pantaloons - that were tailored to suit this
purpose. And over the socks they wore shin-high, thick soled boots of a soft artificial
leatherlike material that looked and felt as supple as the softest kidskin, the tops of which
were turned for down about a third of their length to provide extra thick protection for the
shins.
Over all this ensemble, each of them wore a warm cloak of some sand-coloured stuff
that reached down to ]ust below their knees. They were then also given caps rather like
Outer Earth miltary berets, of the same fabric and pulled down to one side in a similar
fashion.
Once they had all been dressed thus by the young wenches - a procedure which
involved a great deal of embarrassment for the men, who had only their thin sheets
wrapped around their naked bodies to begin with, the five looked extremely smart and
tidily uniform. They strutted about in their new outfits feeling like actors in some medi-
eval movie set. All they needed now were weapons and they would have passed as
members of some sort of warriors from the Robin Hood era! But despite the matching
uniforms, the girls lost none of their feminine appeal and looked quite fetching in their
new clothes.
The Sages were obviously quite delighted by their new neatly-matched and tidy
appearance and beamed down upon them happily.
Excellent! Excellent!" cried their spokesman, his ancient face wreathed in smiles.
You will look most appealing when you make your visual appearance upon the Earths
viewing screens in a few periods time! But now, if you wish you to doff your cloaks and
caps, we welcome you to come up and partake of a good meal before you set forth upon
your ]ourney out to the surface! We have plenty of time in hand before the fleet needs
to leave, thanks to your speedy recuperative powers.
So come now, and relax with us, and boost your strength ready for this final test-
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ing-time that lies before you. However, you will have nothing to fear, for you will not be
exposed to human harm in any way. Nor can you be in]ured by any natural means, since
you will be invisibly shielded against both attack and against the elements of the Outer
Earth. Nor will you be faced by your human audience directly, so you need have no cause
for alarm or concern about that, either!"
The five needed no second bidding, for they were all, by this time, starving hungry.
They took off their caps and cloaks and draped them over the tables upon which their
Agarthan forms had earlier lain. Then they mounted the steps up to the dais, with light-
hearted steps, waved on eagerly by the trio of Sages and their mentor, Avistar.
Soon they were all munching away happily, and chatting with their hosts at the
same time. As he ate, Drew recalled a few logistic points that had occurred to him
regarding the disposition of the hundred Agarthan spacecraft that were to create the
communication network around the Outer Earths surface. Since Avistar had been the
primary organizer of this, he addressed his questions to him.
Tell me, Avistar," he asked, are these interconnecting craft to be stationed above
capital cities only, or will they be dispersed in an equidistant manner around the outer
Globe? !t has ]ust occurred to me that the Earths outer surface area is around three
hundred and seventeen million square miles, so and even with a hundred spaceships, it
means theyll each have to cover over !nI mIIIIn square miles. Thats an awfully big
area! Can they IaII) reach that amount of surface area?"
Avistar smiled pityingly down at Drew. Ah, yes! ! see your point! But what you are
forgetting, my friend, is that over 70 percent of the outer surface Is vI D) an!
This leaves only ninety-five million square miles of dry land - or less than two hundred and
twenty thousand square miles for each ship to cover! That is less than the area of the
American state of Texas! So you can see from this, that we have more than adequate
coverage. Each ship can actually cover !nI I /uI !Ims that area, when boosted by
VIII power! So we have arranged a very solid coverage of all the landmass surfaces and
still have many of our ships free to cover areas of the oceans that contain numerous
islands. Regions such as those of the central, and southeastern Pacific and the Carribean
Sea. ! doubt very much that an)n on the outer globe will miss your Nessage!"
Drew nodded. Sounds like you quite literally have aII !n Dass well and truly
covered, Avistar!" he said. But wont all this interruption ruin the broadcast of the Olym-
pic Games Opening Ceremony? ! mean, its going to cause at least half an hour - if not a
/uII nuI of hold-up! They might have to abandon it altogether!"
Again Avistar smiled down at him. Ah, no, my doubting young friend! We have built
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a mn!aII)-!mpIaI DIK into the broadcast, so that, whilst the full recollection of the
broadcast of the Nessage will be solidly implanted into the minds of all who hear and
witness it, they will have no recollection of any break in the Olympic Opening ceremony at
all. As soon as the Nessage" begins to go forth, all activities in the Stadium will cease -
it will be held in a state of suspension, if you like - but once the Nessage transmission is
ended, they will continue straight on as if nothing had occurred! A few sensitive souls
may believe they have had a trancelike revelation, but most of the more stolid-minded will
barely notice any break at all!
True, there will no doubt be much mystery as to the ceremony running well past its
expected finish-time, but this will no doubt be explained away glibly enough afterwards.
How many such great events on your Surface world vI run accurately to their sched-
uled timetables?" He looked down quizzically at Drew. very /w, ! would venture to
suggest!"
Drew knew he was right. He recalled all the State occasions hed watched on Tv,
and none of them had been given accurate end-times - except when recorded and then
edited by the Tv networks themselves! Everyone would IaII the Nessage in its entirity,
but none would recall exactly wnn they saw and heard it! Even the recorded videos of
the message would not bear a time-indicator, if he knew the Sages! Yet he could clearly
visualize that all those who recorded the Nessage would re-run it over and over, even if
only as a matter of astounded curiosity! And each time they did so, it would IIn/I the
Nessage mI an mI s!IngI) in their minds!
!t was a great Naster Plan, planned by true masters at the art! He ]ust hoped that
it wasnt the art of mass-p!In and that the Outer World might find itself suddenly
being n!III) IuI by a tyrannical triumvirate of dictatorial Sages!
Suddenly, he felt that he was being watched and he looked up. The Sages were
staring at him fixedly. Damn1 He thought inwardly, they bloody well naI me!
Now the spokesman Sage addressed him, but not as severely as hed expected.
We trust that you did not really mean that, did you, Drew? We can understand your
concern over our interest in the outer Earth - but let us hasten to assure you that we have
no territorial intentions whatsoever for our own use! We truly are entirely and solely
motived for the reasons that are stated in the Nessage. !t is certainly rue that if the
Earths atmosphere were to become poisonous, we would not be able to refresh our own
as we presently do twice per orbit, so we do have a direct interest in that particular sense.
But we could arrange an alternative method of replenishment if compelled to do so! Nol
We have n !nI interest in the Outer Earth than its revival and continuation as a natural
and beautiful environment for Nature herself! Also we do not desire the deaths of any of
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her species - even those of its often foolish human occupants! !f we had any desired to
conquer and hold sway over the Outer Earth, we could have done so millennia ago, with
very little effort! Bu! ! wna! pssIDI avaII7 We have our own beautiful !nner world,
which is infinitely more stable and safe than yours!
No, my son! Neither you, nor any of )u !nIs here present, need question our
motives, for, thanks be to the Great Creator Spirit, we are noI driven by the same motives
of suspicion, ]ealousy and greed that seem to so bedevil your external nations of Nankind!
We understand that such suspicious thoughts are inborn into your race, so we forgive you
for thinking them. However, we beseech you to put them from your minds! Now tell us,
once and for all time, do you finally accept us at our true face-value? The MIssIn can s!III
be cancelled if needs be!"
Drew felt about the size of an ant. He looked at his companions who all stared back
at him in pained astonishment. Then he turned back to the three Sages with a deeply
mournfully and penitent expression on his face.
! humbly beg your pardons, Eminences1" he said. ! do completely accept you all
as true and loving friends, not only of ourselves, but of our entire outer world, and ! most
sincerely offer my regrets for my stupid human doubts. ! beg your forgiveness most
earnestly and without reservation!" And having thus spoken, with his mind full of ab]ect
self-reproach, he bowed low before them.
Then you are forgiven!" cried the Sage. Rise up again, Drew, and let us all put this
passing foolishness entirely from our minds! Let all such lingering doubts be completely
erased from our memories!" And, so saying, he and his brethren made a curious genu-
flection towards Drew and his companions. At the same time, a strange buzzing numb-
ness filled their heads for a moment, and then all was back as it had been earlier.
Now, Charles, driven by a sudden compelling urge deep in his spirit, stood up and
raised his crystal drinking glass. Friends!" he cried loudly, and in perfect English. Let us
all be upstanding and drink a toast to the unqualified success of the MIssIn!" And, with
that cry ringing in their ears, they all rose to their feet, their glasses raised in happy
unison, and called out together in one voice: To our m1ss1on!
And so ended their parting feast. For the time was now at hand for the five to follow
Avistar to the marshalling point of the huge fleet of Agarthan spaceships. They quickly
shook hands with and saluted the trio of Sages, who blessed each of them individually as
they filed past. As they donned their cloaks and caps, they turned in the open doorway
with Avistar to bow one last time to the threeancients. And as they did so, the spokesman
of the Sages finally called verbally to them.
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Fear not, my young friends, for the Nission is as good as won already! Nay your
lives henceforth be full of many happy years to come, and may all of your future endeavours
be prosperous! And now a last, fond Farewell!"
The three bowed back deeply from the top of the circular dais, toward the five
adventurers as the great crystal doors slowly closed together, shutting off their last view of
the huge Audience Chamber.
Weel!"said the professor, lapsing back into his own tongue. !ts all up tae us the
noo, lads and lassies! Sae lets mak a grand ]ob o work of it! What dye a say?"
"AYEl" came their enthusiastic response, including that of Avistar, who now led
them back his ship parked in the lofty vestibule of the Sages Palace. This time however,
as the ship raised itself into the air, he turned it upon a totally new heading and they set
off across a part of Shamballah they had hitherto never visited. Within minutes they were
hovering above a great open paved area that must have served Shamballah as an interna-
tional airport - had the great metropolis had need of such a facility - or perhaps even a
military airbase! There were hundreds of the large silvery craft known to the outer world
as flying-saucers" parked in seried ranks all across the vast paved concourse.
These were at least twice the size of the domestic type of flying craft that they had
become used to, and obviously capable of a far greater performance. Drew wondered as
he gazed in awe out of the wrap-around window of their own ship what enormous feats of
space travel these huge ships must be capable of in comparison to the already fantastic
speeds and distances their own could achieve! Surely one could travel to distant star
sytems in them far beyond even their own local Nilky Way galaxy! Avistar read his
unguarded marvelling thoughts as easily as a newspaper headline.
You are quite correct, Drew!" he said in answer to his unspoken question. These
are the pride of our entire !nner Earth fleet of trading ships, and they are capable of travel
to the far side of the Universe if need be! However, for the moment we are content with
]ust a few light-years, and then only when really necessary in the interests of trade or
intergalactic relationships with other star-races. As you know, this planet is often visited
by what your outer folk so disparagingly refer to as aliens". Yet many of them are ]ust as
human as are you and !, with as few minor differences in unimportant physiological modi-
fications to suit their environments. At heart, most of them are essentially no different in
mind and spirit. Perhaps a little further advanced along the path toward ultimate physical
and mental perfection, but nothing more." He was adressing them all now.
We are all simply variations on a single fundamental theme in terms of our basic
humanity. !t is ]ust that some races were developed earlier than others and have accord-
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ingly developed further than we. !t is n! what you outer humans call Evolution", for no
such thing exists. The scientists who developed that concept were misguided by their
own ignorance, and failed entirely to take into account the possibility that a Great Creative
!ntellect had simply run the complete gamut of all conceivable design variations possible
in each species and even in each phylum of biological life.
Since we are all creations of this same great Experimenting and !nquiring !ntellect,
we are all thus his creatures and therefore are all of equal importance in His sight! Thus
to call such an entity from another world an alien" is to disparage ones own kin! !n this
regard it is the same as the Outer Earth idea of racism" based upon colour of a mans skin
- even though you are all men! So let us think no more of aliens" but instead of Star-
Brethren"! Had but your stay among us been of greater duration, ! am sure you wold have
had the chance to become better acquainted with many here who have been brought to
sanctuary within the Earths Centre!"
Then he stopped speaking as a group of tall Agarthan pilots approaced the craft.
Forgive me," said Avistar, for having lectured you, but ! see that my brothers are anxious
to depart now. ! must ]ust go and confer with them. Please follow me now, as we will be
transferring to one of these more capacious craft!" And so saying, he opened the hatch-
way and guided them all to a great, seemlingly brand new space vehicle, which looked so
immaculate that it might have come directly from the factory floor!
The actual drive of the ship, as Drew noticed when they made their way underneath
its wide discoid base to its lowered central elevator platform, appeared to be contained in
a large circular downward-protruding torus. No doubt this circular doughnut-like protru-
sion contained the antigravity apparatus whch gave the ship its powerful lift and thrust, for
there were no supporting legs to be seen beneath its base. !t simply hovered immobile in
situ some eight or nine feet off the deck, without the slightest movement, as they mounted
the elevator platform and were drawn up inside.
Once inside they found that its interior was amazingly spacious and astonishingly
free from fittings, plant and control arrays. All it contained in this regard, were the same
simple touch-pads that they were now accustomed to finding in the domestic craft.
A circle of individual, reclining seats surrounded a central cylindrical pillar which
displayed a high-set, 360 degree all-round viewing screen that showed the ships external
surroundings. There were no actual transparent windows as such in this craft, and the
only entry was effected by means of the central pillar which, beside the circular elevator
platform, contained several other drive and control mechanisms.
A wide curved sliding hatch gave access from this platform, when it was drawn up
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inside the pillar, into the ships single decked interior. Between the circle of seats and the
perimeter of the circular cabin there was an abundance of free space divided into bays,
and obviously intended for the stowage of cargo.
There were already three Agarthan crew members inside the ship, and they guided
the five Earthlings to their seats. These seats, although in many respects resembling
modern dentists chairs, proved to be extremely comfortable indeed. and Errol remarked
that he could happily fly across the universe in one without feeling cramped. He experi-
mented with various touch-buttons on a remote control built into the armrest, and discov-
ered that the chairs attitude, shape and configuration could be fully ad]usted to suit every
need of its user - including a personal monitor screen that swung up out of its side to
perch directly before the occupants face. At Drews suggestion Errol wisely decided to
leave any further investigations until Avistar came aboard and was able to explain these
facilities to them all!
After a few moments of final consultation with the fleet commanders, Avistar finally
came aboard via the elevator, in company with its captain, whom he introduced to the five
friends as Zentoor. !t was he who would be in control of the visual and audio recording of
their Nessage delivery, which would be relayed from his ships camera-apparatus to all
the others in the great armada, so his role was a most important one in the success of the
entire operation.
Soon the crew and Avistar had also taken their seats, and within a matter of mo-
ments the ship began to climb up into the sky, followed by the vast fleet which ascended
in waves behind them. Then they set off across the bounds of the city of Shamballah, and
eventually over the borders of Agartha toward the Central Ocean.
Here the entire fleet swung northwards toward the northern inner polar region. As
they passed over the landscape, the passengers were able to see, on the slowly-rotating
cylindrical screen before them, all of the inner surface features in fine panoramic detail, as
they approached and passed them by. Realizing that this would probably be the last time
they would look upon the scenery of the inner Earth, everyone tried to imprint the view
indelibly on their memories.
As they flew unhurriedly onward, the professor was heard to quote something he
recalled from the Bible. !t was a couple of paraphrased verses from Psalm 137 and it was
beautifully apt.
Hw snaII w sIng !n LIs sng In a s!Iang Ian7 1/ 1 /Ig! !n, O 5namDaIIan,
I! m) IIgn! nan /Ig! nI unnIng. 1/ 1 n! ImmDI !n, I! m) !ngu Iav !
!n I/ / m) mu!n; I/ 1 pI/I n! 5namDaIIan aDv m) nI/ ))1
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Then, he apologised to his God and his colleagues for his substitution of the city
name 5namDaIIan for that in the original of JIusaIm by quietly adding:
Weel! Sence Ahm no a Hebrew mahsailf, Ah hope sencerely that the guid Lord will
see His Way clear tae forgeeve me for the wee change in the name!"
There was a profound silence for a few minutes after that, as the five Earthlings sat
and digested these moving words, which so closely echoed their own inner feelings of
sadness. But suddenly Avistar reached across and gripped Drews wrist. He pointed at
the deep, wide screen image before them and said:
5, DIw! Here is the answer to that in which you were so keenly interested a few
periods ago! Tn PIaI IK Is aDu! ! D pn1 So watch closely!" Then he told them
all that if they brought up their personal viewing-screens they would see the entire opera-
tion shown upon them.
!t was quite an incredible sight, and one none of them would ever forget! As the
fleet of spaceships drew closer to the end of the shallow northernmost arm of the Central
Sea, there was a sudden flurry of movement upon the surface of the water and it seemed
to suddenly disappear as if sucked away down a gigantic hidden drain. This revealed a
vast smooth-bottomed craterlike depression of probably two or three hundred miles diam-
eter, its flat floor covered by a film of oceanic ooze.
But, as they watched, a small aperture began to open up in its centre, and this very
rapidly widened to reveal itself as actually being an enormous iris-shutter - sun as aI s!III
us In man) amIas - either of metallic or crystalline construction. How it had ever
been built completely defied the imagination of the five adventurers. But they were al-
ready well enough acquainted with the marvellous technology of these inner people to
know that virtually n engineering feat - regardless of size - was beyond them! However,
they did now recall seeing a smaller version, using the same basic principle, in the Nazi
stronghold of Nu GImanIa beneath Antarctica!
However, the aperture did not open to its fullest extent. !t reached something
approaching perhaps five or ten miles in diameter, then it stopped. Now the ships moved
forward - or rather upwaI - since they entered the vertically high, cylindrical chasm that
was now revealed, in a horizontally /Ia! mode - in two circular squadron-configurations of
fifty ships each. !t was then, after they had cleared the aperture, that the iris-like open-
ing began to close swiftly again behind them.
Though they sensed nothing, Avistar now told them that a vast quantity of highly-
compressed air was being pumped into the airlock - for such it was - and that as they
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approached the upper portal, its iris would be opened equally rapidly and their ships
would all be more or less swept upward and out by the burst of escaping pressurized air.
Which is precisely what happened. Of course it required that most of the outer ships had
to reverse their antigravity power for a few moments in order to keep formation with the
innermost ships, but as the aperture opened sufficiently wide, the whole of the fleet were
suddenly expelled through it by the uplifting air.
!t was amazing how the the ships steersmen were able maintain such precise for-
mation, but as Avistar pointed out, it was a matter of great pride among the Agarthan fleet
that they could accomplish such extremely difficult manoeuvres with practiced ease, and
they spared no opportunity or effort to demonstrate their prowess!
Now, as the leaves of the outer iris below them skimmed rapidly together, the two
squadrons of spacecraft paused momentarily before shooting off through the frosty polar
atmosphere toward their predsignated stations. Avistars ship was the last to leave, so its
Earthling occupants were able to see on the screens, via a camera mounted beneath the
ship, how the densely foggy, polar atmosphere rolled back in over the still-churning wa-
ters that marked the point where the iris had ]ust closed.
The blast of upward-exploding air had held back the Arctic waters long enough for
them to emerge, and, then, as the aperture grew smaller again, they had flooded back
again, as also had the white fog above them. Small wonder that so few seamen and
other adventurers had ever been fortunate enough to be in the vicinity at ]ust the right
point in time! Drew still wondered how they managed, on two occasions in the year, to
hold these openings open for sustained periods. But since Avistars attention now was
occupied with accurately locating their actual landing site he refrained from bothering him
further.
Their ship now headed in a south-southeasterly direction and, since it was still morn-
ing, in the sunny northern summer time, they had no difficulty, by means of the bottom-
mounted camera, in recognizing the southern coast of Greenland, then !celand and the
familiar squatting and turbaned Hindu shape of Britain. Then they were crossing the
English Channel to fly high over Holland, then western Germany, and up over the white
snow-clad humps of the Alps down across northern !taly and out along the Adriatic Sea
with the long, booted-leg shape of !taly on its right-hand side.
But when they came to came to the heel of !taly, the ship swung due eastward and
a few moments later, it slowed almost to a crawl so that they could gaze at a marvellous
downward-view of Nount Olympus. Then, after a taking little time to study this once
mighty home of the Grecian pantheon of ancient gods, as well as other ancient sites, their
ship headed southeast until it was hovering above the great Greek capital of Athens.
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Now the camera zoomed in upon the great, newly-renovated stadium in which the Olym-
pics were to be opened.
Here they paused for some time, looking down at this huge arena where, in a few
short hours the sporting champions of most of the Outer Worlds nations would begin
parading around its perimeter track - which they could clearly see - and forming up in
their great phalanxes in its central arena! !t was an amazing sight and it was detined to
become infinitely more amazing later on, as they all knew!
EventuallyAvistar directed the ship eastward into the falling shades of night across
Turkey, !raq, !ran and Afghanistan, over the Hindu Kush cutting across the tip of northern
Pakistan over the Khyber Pass, Kashmir, and into the mighty Himalayas.
Here they swiftly began to descend in a great curving circle above the lofty snow-
laden peaks, until finally in the darkness, by means of a searchlight, Avistar spotted the
tiny high plateau which was their final ob]ective.
Slowly now their ship began its long vertical descent to the tiny white-clad pocket-
handkerchief of flat frozen rock where they would soon have to stand for at least half an
hour or more, out in the freezing, biting wind off the Tibetan plateau. Hazel asked Avistar
how on Earth the were supposed to withstand even that short a period without getting
frostbite? But Avistar smilingly reassured her that all that had been preconsidered and
that they would feel no cold.
The craft came down close to the snow-covered rock surface and Avistar and the
Captain after donning warm ]umpsuit coveralls, descended, carrying floodlights and other
gear, via the elevator and walked around its edge until they found a suitably even and
level area. This was carefully marked out with coloured tape and then a number of small
cylindrical devices were planted in the snow at intervals around its perimeter. As the
others were later to learn this was to create a zone of infra-red warmth and also an
electostatic shield through which the wind could not pass, for them to stand inside. Avistar
then went and stood within this zone whilst the captain came back aboard and moved the
ship a little distance away from the edge of the plateau.
They then did several camera and voice-tests which were repeated over the viewers
in the cabin. Errol leaned back in his seat, saying in a loud voice into his cupped hand :
Testingl Testingl "What Hath God Wrought?" ONE - TWO - THREE .This is a
Test." until Drew told him to can it.
Aw! Fair crack of the bloody whip, Errol!" he said. This is serious! Theyre trying to
set it all up properly for us. Give èm a flaming break, mate!"
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Errol ]ust snorted and muttered something about Drew not being such a fun guy to
be around these days. Drew decided not to be drawn any further and instead concen-
trated upon what was happening outside. Eventually, the captain seemed to be satisfied
with the sound and vision situation, and after some further test messages to several of the
other ships, all of whom appeared to reply with satisfactory answers, he then communed
silently with Avistar for a moment or two more. Then he once again moved the ship back
over the plateau, and Avistar re-entered via the elevator.
! believe that everything is now set up and in working order!" he said, So all we
have to do now is await the signal from the ship stationed above the stadium telling us
that the event has begun and that the last of the marchers are entering the arena and we
can then prepare to send forth the Nessage! ! trust that you are all ready to play your
parts?" They all nodded vigorously.
No one has /Ig!!n their parts of the speech?" He asked them, with a twinkle of
humour in hs eyes. They all shook their heads equally vigorously.
N1 he added, ! rather xp! not! !t is permanently locked in your memories
- at least until such time as the task is completed! Then ! shall personally remove the
memory from you - that is, unless someone wishes to continue to retain it in their mind as
a Ias!Ing mmn! of the Nission, of course!"
The professor put up his hand. Ah wouldnae mind, hangin on tae mIn, if thats all
richt we ), Aivistair?"
Avistar was pleased with this. Then so you shall, Charles! ! will be happy to leave
you with such an excellent memory of your part in all of this wonderful work!"
Then he added after a moments thought, - And also your wonderful Imags, too!
! will be pleased to instruct you later how to reproduce these on a videotape, before we
finally part."
At this, the other four immediately changed their minds. Chass brilliant holographs
were far too wonderful to lose! Yes! Theyd aII retain the whole Nessage!
Avistar was like a dog with two tails. They had made his day for him, as he had felt
rather saddened by their readiness to get rid of the great Nessage, especially after the
hard mental work he had put into all the preparations and planning for its actual delivery.
!t would not interfere with their normal thought processes, he told them, and would
only come back to them when they summoned it back willingly! Now they too could share
in Charles images too, and he would show them all how to dub these from mind to tape
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- or even upon pn!gIapnI /IIm, if they so desired! He was quite familiar with most of
Earths current technlogies, so he could make it comparatively simple for them to do this
for themselves.
They discussed a variety of other matters with Avistar as they awaited their Big
Noment!" Would their parting after this adventure mean total separation in the future
between themselves and him, or was there any way they could maintain some sort of
psychic email" system with him?
Dont you mean p-maII?" he asked with a rare smile and a dash of unexpected
wit.
Of course we will keep in touch, if that is your wish! ! would be very happy to
remain in contact at any time! Always remember that ! shall be only a !nugn! away!"
Then he paused a moment before going on. However, should any of you ever wish to
visit with us again, on the astral - I In !n /Isn - it can always be arranged! As far as the
Sages are concerned you are all HnIaI) CI!Izns / 5namDaIIan and will always be
welcomed back there at any time!
As for myself, ! gather that ! am to take Naxs place as Head of the Council of
Elders in vallissum, at such time as ! eventually manage to return there, so ! have much
pleasure in extending that very sam honour and pleasure toward any and all of you, on
behalf of AvaIIan1 However, you must all feel free to visit us at any time in your astral
forms, but if you wish to visit us pn)sIaII), we will need to arrange transport for you in
one of our ships, so please advise me well ahead of time!"
Drew suddenly recalled a question he had meant to put to Avistar, before they
parted. Tell me, Avistar." he asked, rather hesitantly. When we part company at the
close of this present Nission, will you also be taking back our VIII power with you?"
Avistar took a step backward in surprise. Why should ! desire to do that, Drew?
Did ! not tell you that the power of VIII was a gift that once given cannot be taken back?
No, my dear friend! !t is yours to use as you will, for ! know now that )u will not abuse
it again as you did against those reptilians! A lesson learned the hard way is one that will
always remain in the memory!"
No! Consider that but a pI IwaI for the services you have and are about to do
for the Earth, for the Sages and for your own kind! There is really n gI/! DIg nugn that
we can offer you, to adequately Ipa) your help in all of this! So use it, aII / )u, wisely
and safely, and let it pIsIv you for many more long years to come from all sickness and
harm - even up nI in this dangerous Outer World!"
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After this unusually long and heartfelt speech by Avistar, everyone of the five felt at
a loss for suitable comments that would measure up to his obvious gratitude and sincerity.
The only way they could suitably show him their own thanks for his graceful and kindly
guidance and tuition regarding so many things strange and new was to do their very best
in the presentation of the Nessage - as soon as the time was right to begin broadcasting
it.
Drew was beginning to wonder and worry more than a little, in case the Sages might
have somehow been misinformed as to the date and time of the Games Opening Cer-
emony, and that all this marshalling of a great fleet of the flying-saucer"-like craft and the
rest of the whole business had been ]ust a colossal waste of time and effort on everyones
part! !t would be tremendous pity if that wI to be the case, as nobody had ever been
more ready than himself to give a task his best ever shot! !t ]ust didnt bear thinking
about!
!t was as he thought about the great fleet of Flying-Saucers" that he suddenly
remembered what Avistar had said about the ancient vimana" craft that the ancient
Rama Empire were said to have possessed, and that the Ramans had got the craft, actu-
ally built by Avistars own race - or perhaps even s!In !n IIgInaI sIgn - themselves
from the Avallahans, who were widely renowned as being the experts at producing such
technology for most of the !nner Earth. But what of those FI)Ing 5auIs often sighted
in the outer skies? TnII origin hadnt been made clear to him.
He watched and waited until Avistar had finished a rather seriously- expressioned
mental conference with his captain regarding an update of the situation at the Olympic
Games Stadium, then he approached him again. However he first inquired if everything
was running to schedule. Avistar said I! was now - but that there had been somewhat of
a blunder in their timing. No one had been aware of the n-nuI avan in the actual
clock-time during the northern hemisphere summI, and, because all of their outer earth
time-calculations were based upon BII!Isn Greenwich Nean Time, they had completely
overlooked the !w-nuI !Im-I//In!IaI between London and Greece! All it meant was
that they had arrived and positioned every craft and set their timings three Earth-hours
aIIII that necessary! Hence all the waiting for time to pass. !nner Earth chronometry
was vastly different since the inner sun was always in the same central position in the
Edenan sky!
However, at least this was far better than being three hours Ia!! That would have
been a real disaster! They had ]ust been busy preparing their story for the Sages, who
would begin to get concerned when they had to wait around three and a half part-periods
IngI than expected for the news signal that the Nessage had been successfully deliv-
ered!
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Drew remarked that he was pleasantly surprised to see that the inhabitants of the
!nner Earth were only human after all, and ]ust as prone to making the occasional error as
were their External Earth counterparts!
But now that the concerned expression was fading from Avistars features, he de-
cided to pose his Off-Topic"question regarding Flying Saucers. Avistar seemed to wel-
come this little diversion with open arms, after what had, for a while, been almost a ma]or
panic among himself and his Fleet commanders!
Ah, yes! The x!Ia!IIs!IIaI spacecraft!" said Avistar, smiling as if recalling a fading,
but still fond, old memory from yesteryear. Yes, Drew. They are real enough and they
do, of course, quite frequently visit the Earth - both Outer an !nner! However, our own
craft, whilst having many of the same basic characteristics, are of a rather different de-
sign. But ! supppose, even though they have always been here since ! was born, it is
always quite possible that the original concept of our own ships was derived from such an
outer space visitor in the distant past. ! believe ! once came across a comment in one of
you ancient holy books - TnI Is n nw !nIng unI !n sun. Perhaps you know it?
Yes. "said Drew. !ts in our Judeo-Christian Bible. ! learned that at school!"
Well, then" said Avistar."You will understand my point! How many times do differ-
ent people in different lands - or even worlds - think of the same idea independently of
each other? Take the WnI, for example. !t is n! a uniquely Earth-born concept. Nany
thousands - or even millions - of other planets possess it! Some concepts are obvious to
thinking men wherever the may be in the universe! Thus also with the extraterrestrial
Fying Saucer" and the vimana craft. They are basically similar in concept even though
the products of two cultures who had never met! Or at least, so T believe!
However, to answer your inner unspoken thoughts! Whilst a great many sightings
of these craft aI reported, most of them are a!uaII) uI wn !nner Earth scout-ships
performing environmental surveillance duties on behalf of the Sages and other agencies
of the !nner Earth, but they aI noI abducting Outer Earth people, nor are they mutilating
cattle - nor have any of our ships been shot down or otherwise captured by the miltary of
some of your nations! These are definitely craft and creatures from IswnI than the
!nner Earth.
We know that at least !w of your own outer nations have experimented with
similar craft, and, of course, there are also those craft of GImanIa under Antarcica - as
we have so recently observed! But ! believe that these others, who abduct people and
mutilate cattle, are from another galaxy. A most highly technologically-developed race,
but a very vII one, whom we shun! They once tried to trick us into accepting some of
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their people into Edena, as refugees, but they were soon discovered to be spies and
traitors, and sadly, we had little choice but to have them promptly eliminated!
As you yourself are aware, Drew, this is not something we undertake lightly, but
their treachery would have spelled extermination for all the people of Edena ! So we
could hardly allow them to go free. !t would have sent a signal all the other evil races
among the galaxies that we were an easy target!"
He looked mildly askance at Drew. As for any !nI visitors to your outer world - we
have not yet encountered any other than these treacherous little grey demons, whom !
suspect are closely related to the reptilians! That is about all ! can tell you in this
connection!"
Drew thanked him and was about to turn away, when another matter occurred to
him. Oh, by the way, Avistar! Did you every get a chance to discuss the professor and
his Tibetan friend, Queng Lobsang, regarding that information-transfer" he was anxious
to receive? No doubt you will recall that Queng offered to allow all of his great store of
wisdom to be copied into Chass mind, and Chas asked you if you could arrange it .?"
Avistar groaned and slapped himself hard upon the brow in self-reproach.
Oh, of course! How stupid of me to /Ig!! You are quite right to remind me,
Drew. But now ! am in a quandary as to how ! can achieve this - unless Chas is prepared
to return with me afterwards, back to Shamballah? Hmmmm! The only other way
would be for him to receive it in his as!IaI /Im, but ! am not certain how this would be
done! ! shall have to speak to Chas about it after the Nessage has been sent. ! am
terribly saddened by this foolish lapse on my part, Drew, but thank you for reminding me!
! am sure sm!nIng can be done about it! Yes! ! shall..."
But there he had to stop in mid-conversation, as the captain of the ship had an
urgent message for him. He listened for a moment and then turned back smiling toward
Drew.
A! Ias!1" he beamed. We have received news that the OpnIng CImn) is now
under way in the Olympic Stadium, so we can now finally begin the task we are here to
do!"
He turned to the other four Outer Earthlings, and clapped his hands for silence.
Everyone stopped talking and turned to face him with expectant smiles on their faces.
We will now begin to leave the ship and take up our designated positions, then the
ship can move out to its camera-viewing position, ready to begin sending our Nessage
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forth. ! myself shall be with you, since it is necessary that the audience can clearly see
that ! truly do represent a different race to yourselves! Also ! will be there to give you any
moral support you might require! !f all now goes well, you shoild be back aboard this craft
within one of your Earth hours.
And now, if you will follow me..."
He then made his way to the opened elevator-hatch and stepped inside. Then the
five ambassadors followed him, filled with nervous excitement! At last it was time to
finally complete their Nission on behalf of the Sages and for the benefit of the whole Earth
and all of the lifeforms it carried on its surface!
As they exited the elevator, the freezing cold struck them all like a physical blow, but
after a few stumbling paces toward the lighted rectangular area marked by the planted
shield-pro]ector units, they suddenly found themselves standing inside a beautifully warm
and windless zone. The snow still lay beneath their feet but it had been levelled by the
intersecting heating rays at the exact point where their boots soles touched it, so even the
solse of their feet were as warm as toast!
Whilst they lined up in their rehearsed positions with Avistars giant figure looming
behind them, they heard the faint whine of the ship lifting off behind them. Within
seconds it was in position some thirty feet in front of them, hovering above a pitch-black,
two thousand foot gulf, facing the top edge of their plateau. A camera protruded from its
upper surface and pointed directly at them, with a large monitor screen above it and a
coloured light on either side of it. The left one glowed redly. When it went off and the
green one came on in its place they would be On Air!"
They stood for a few moments while the last of the national groups of athletes,
Zimbabwe, ended its long march around the great stadiums racing track, then took its
place among all the preceding alphabetically-ordered nations. The last bars of the Zimba-
bwean national anthem slowly faded away, followed by a long moment of expectant si-
lence.
Then, ]ust as the Games 0fficial announcer was about to introduce the first official
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speaker on the saluting dais, the great television-screens at either end of the vast stadium
turned a blank blue, and a sudden new sound rang out across the sea of humanity. !t was
a strange but marvellously melodious fanfare of trumpets! But it was such a hauntingly
different and unearthly sound that one could be forgiven for mistaking it for the Las!
TIump! !ts echoes had barely begun to fade when, in far-away Tibet, a green light
suddenly clicked on.
A giant floodlit face at once filled the screen. !t was the face of a handsome young
man, with regular features framed in long blond hair and a blond beard to match. His
penetrating blue eyes gazed keenly but smilingly out from under the edge of a smart
fawn-coloured military beret,.pulled down on one side. There was a great whispered
ululation of sound as many in the crowd thought he might perhaps be the representative
of some terrorist organization. However, his words, that now followed, immediately
allayed such fears.
!nstead, his magnetic personality, which seemed to shine forth from the great screens
like a beacon, held their attention almost instantly. At that same instant, Drews person-
ality and his words also captured the attention of billions of viewers all around the globe.
They had been expecting a tedious round of boring speeches from tediously-boring Olym-
pic officials, so Drews face and words were a welcomed intrusion for many! But now his
voice rang out - as true and clear as the golden-toned trumpets that had heralded him!
As he began to speak, the camera pulled slowly back to show that he was one of a
group of five, three men and two women, all similarly accoutred and equally good-looking
And behind them, there stood a giant white-clad, godlike figure, his silver hair and beard
glinting brightly in the floodlights his amazing form standing out like a mighty angel against
a star-filled black sky.
A gasp of awe arose from the great concourse of people, and no one noticed the
flurried, bewildered officials gesticulating down on the dais. .
People of the Earth!" Drews voice pealed out strongly
We are here to bring you the ms! ImpI!an! mssag / )uI IIvs! So, before we
begin to do so, ! must ask all among you who can, to quickly insert a videotape in your
vCR and switch it on immediately to record this entire message! ! shall pause here for a
few moments whilst you do this!" (Here there was a brief pause before Drew resumed
speaking.) Are we ready now? Good! Then here is our message! Please give it your full
attention. Your survival may well depend on it!
Dearly Beloved fellow Citizens!
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We bring you greetings from the people of another world and a great message of
hope which they wish us to communicate directly to every one of you! We have come to
speak to you today on a great matter of global importance, which affects every one of you
Earth people. We come to you as humans who have spent a good deal of time in another
world which is very closely empathetic with your own exposed and vulnerable surface
world, although their own world is on the interior of its planet, and is thus safe from all the
hazards which you face on yours on a daily basis! That inner world we have ]ust visited
is supervised by a group of wise Sages who have already made their own world into a
veritable Paradise, by the use of powers and technology which are light-years beyond
those of your Surface World of Earth.
For many long years they have studied you world with growing concern for its well-
being and that of yourselves - its inhabitants. Now they note with great concern that your
planet is on the verge of becoming uninhabitable, certainly within this next century and
possibly even within a few short decades. Because of this, they feel most deeply in their
hearts that they should endeavour to try to rescue your planet and all the life it contains
from certain destruction. We can testify to the fact that they certainly have the will, the
means and the unlimited power to do so - as we now demonstrate through the holo-
graphic display that you can see above our heads!
(Here, Drew pointed upwards at a huge glowing and detailed image of the beautiful
blue and white Earth rotating in space, as seen from an astronauts viewpoint. A great
gasp of wonder arose from the huge crowd in the stadium.)
As you can see there are six of us. Five of us represent five of the Earths nations
whilst the taller personage behind us represents the Sages ! have spoken of, and it will be
he who will telepathically assess your collective reaction, and return to advise the Sages of
that reaction! How this reaction will be assessed we will tell you later, but first ! ask you
to bear with myself and my fellow speakers, for we have a great deal to say! And ! must
ask you all to pay close attention to our words!
But let me assuI you that your reaction and any subsequent decision will n! rest
with your Governments, or your Heads of State, Presidents or Prime Ninisters, but person-
ally with an / )u, the IaI I!Izns of this world, as to whether the race ! speak of
should be permitted to help set our planet to rights and restore it to its natural and proper
condition! Before you decide whether such aid should or should not be accepted, we ask
that you first hear us out, as we explain ]ust what such a Renewal of your planet would
entail, and how it would affect each of you and your loved ones on a personal level in the
near future.
As ! have said, the Sages have studied the Earth very carefully over many decades
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past and have identified all the evils that beset it. Holes in the ozone layer, global warm-
ing, a rapid thinning of the protective ionosphere, and a vast and ever-increasing build up
of carbon dioxide and suphur dioxide in the air you breathe. This is mostly due to the
steady destruction of your great rainforests which are the lungs of the earth, but it is not
helped by the toxic pollutants of your factories and gas-producing automobiles that are
increasingly being pumped into the air that you breathe! Also real-estate developers
acting in concert with your local government planning authorities are preventing any
regrowth of lifegiving oxygen-producing plants by encouraging the constant encroach-
ment of your cities and urban areas across the land. Let us now begin to set forth the
observations of the Sages as to how they see matters in relation to your rapidly-dwindling
life-supporting environment!"
(A! !nIs pIn! DIw s!pp DaK an nan vI !n spaKIng II ! !n pI/s-
sI, wn nw s!pp /IwaI an n!Inu wI!n !n mssag.}
The Sages recommend that the continuing problem of urban sprawl from the worlds
large cities and towns must be halted right away in order to prevent more and more
natural countryside and valuable arable land vanishing under great swathes of concrete
during the construction of roads and housing estates."
(HI Cnas pI)! a nug IIIumIna! nIgIapnI Is-up s!In / aI!ns
suI/a, snwIng a sp-up squn / a !)pIaI suDuIDan vIpmn! nangIng !n
s/! gIn vg!a! suI/a ! n / naIsnI)-gIaIIng nI! an gIavI, vIn wI!n
DIaK DI!umn suDuIDan s!I!s an spIu!Ing a ns ugI) /ungus / nuss. 1! was
IIK wa!nIng a IapII) spIaIng sKIn-anI.}
This means that new places of residence must be provided elsewhere on or
within the earth where they would not interfere with the redevelopment of natural life
upon the land surface. New verdure such as of forests, rainforests, open savannah wood-
lands and prairies, and natural waterways, such as rivers and lakes, as well as other
natural features and fauna habitat must be permitted to develop, so that the dangerously
high concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases like methane and
nitrous oxide in the atmosphere will begin to diminish, and oxygen and nitrogen can be
restored to their proper healthy levels.
This can only be achieved naturally by the inspiration of carbon dioxide into green
plants and trees which then exhale oxygen, and the restoration of nitrogen and other
nutrients into the soil, via natural means of organic decay of dead matter. Therefore, in
order for more foliage to work in this interchange, the land surface of the earth mus! be
given every possible chance to re-cover its surface as widely as possible with a massive
regrowth of myriads more trees and plants. The only way this can happen is for the clear-
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felling of land for housing and commercial development and tree-felling for timber to be
as /I!nwI!n. Thus Humanity mus! find alternative materials to replace wood and
natural vegetation for producing its requirements in housing, furniture and furnishings.
Unfortunately, and contrary to popular belief, the Great Creator Spirit I n! provide all
growing trees and plants as such for the sole wasteful useage of humanity!
Nany herbivorous animals depend upon vegetation and its fruits for their sole food
requirements. But, unlike humans, they return the waste products of their digestive sys-
tems directly to the soil so as little nutrient material as possible is wasted. After such
animals die, their remains are gradually absorbed back into the surface soil where their
bodily chemical constituents can immediately be recycled by other animals and plants.
Humans, alas, either bury their dead at such a depth that this recycling process
cannot occur, or they cremate their dead so that only handfuls of useful chemicals are left,
and often, these are retained in metal or earthenware containers and do not get scattered
over the ground where their chemicals would be reuseable by new life. Opportunistic
entrepreneurs have even contemplated funeral spaceships in which dead people can be
taken up into space orbits and fired out into interstellar space. Thus their remant bodily
chemicals would be totally lost to the Earth.
One of the largest and most contentious considerations that Nan has to face, is the
vI-ppuIa!In of the planet by numans, because of which many other equally important
lifeforms are rapidly being driven into extinction. This has to be stopped as a matter of
great urgency before humanity succeeds in exterminating itself by sheer overgrowth, and
by using up all the resources of the planet to the point of its total denudation of both plant
and animal life. One can readily evisage the final stage in such a scenario, where men are
finally reduced to hunting an !nI for food. True, this has aIIa) occurred in the past
among some races and tribes of man. But that was either for religious reasons, local
temporary scarcity of protein, or in the vain hope of acquiring anothers physical powers,
bravery or skills by absorbing their physical matter into ones own body.
Humanity already has many means at its disposal for curbing its numbers via con-
traceptive means, tubal ligation, vasectomy, or by self-elective celibacy - as in the case of
the Sages and other ascetics and scholastic persons. Whilst it is a natural animal desire
on the part of Nankind to procreate and thus perpetuate his genetic line, most humans
place themselves upon a higher plane of being that the other common animals of the wild
around them. True, he also lavishes a certain amount of attention upon carefully breeding
the finest of his domesticated animals, such as racehorses or specialized dogs, or upon
domestic food or wool livestock in order to make them produce more meat, milk, or wool.
But he has never applied the same eugenics to himself, except perhaps in the rather
useless pursuit of producing better sports-stars.
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Some nations have tried in the past to indulge in their own national eugenics in the
form of so-called IaIaI-IansIng an puII/Ia!In. Whilst the Nazis have been held up as
an historically evil example of this practice, many other even worse examples can be
found throughout the history of Nankind upon the Earth. The great alleged WII-DIug
of the Hebrew God, Yahweh, is a classic example of this, and such an event is echoed in
many other nations of around the same epoch. But, this seems to be more of a religio-
mythical attempt to explain a natural cataclysm such as the result of a polar tilt or a
collision with a large spaceborne body. However, there have been many worldwide
pogroms that were carried out either for reasons of religious or nationalistic fervour. The
Jews have often been a favourite target for this in the so-called civilized world, especially
in Russia and Europe.
There were also many widespread religious purgings" committed by the oppres-
sive Holy Catholic church against all non-Catholics under the guise of serving God by
ridding the world of heretics. The notorious Catholic 1nquIsI!In was only one part of
this wholesale systematic bloody torture and slaughter of innocent people who chose to
believe differently to themselves. They, too, included the Jews in their IIIgIus Ians-
Ing, as the killers of Christ and thus the enemies of God. !t is difficult to understand how
the centre of world Catholicism came to be located in Pm - the heart of the very nation
whose ancestors murdered this holy Prophet of God, Jesus Christ, upon a wooden cross
for advocating freedom from the then equally oppressive Hebrew religion!
These religious mass-killings, some involving Christians against Christians, others
between Christians and Nuslims, and yet others still between Christans and heathens" -
as wII as aII !ns !nIs that occurred in all the myriad ethnic, religious and territorial
conflicts that have punctuated human history almost since its beginning. These culminat-
ing in the incredibly vast mass-slaughters during the World Wars that swept the world
twenty or more centuries after the killing of Christ. Such terrible events, together with
their inevitable camp-followers" of pIagu and /amIn, alas, are now the nI) real con-
straints that keep humanity from utterly swamping the earth in a voracious and destruc-
tive wave of locust-like humanity. A wave that can only end in this planet becoming laid
as waste and bare of any life as is the surface of Nars!
There is an extremely urgent need for the re-education of people to restrict their
proclivities for self-perpetuation. This can be solved quite simply if they adopt the same
approach to life as we Envoys ourselves have discovered. By extending our own continu-
ity as individual entities upon a nIgnI pIan / DIng than that of a mere /IsnI) existence!
As spiritual entities, we can aII live forever, and this is expounded in our new religious
belief! Alternatively, if people wish to extend their material, physical lives, this can also be
achieved if they will but follow the lifestyles of those who are happily prepared to instruct
them! They will soon discover the wonderful new experience of a greatly extended life
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and all the new wealth of knowledge this will bring, if only they can learn to control their
natural procreative urges!
There will s!III be a necessity for children to be born, if only to replace those who
choose to ascend to a higher level of existence in the spiritual realms. This is the Divine
Will of the Great Creator Spirit that as many souls as possible should experience life at all
levels.
However there is no necessity for women to remain mere child-bearing creatures
for the satisfaction of egocentric men who still follow the same drive as the lower animals
to procreate themselves as prolifically as possible. The lower animals have many preda-
tors and are the victims of many natural, deadly hazards, so !n) n to procreate con-
tinuously to avoid extinction.
Nan, however, s n!. His only predator is his wn KIn! The more territory he
owns and occupies, the more others will plot against him to oust him and take it over! !t
is this vicious spiral that has to be stopped, and it can only be stopped by Nan himself
coming to the realization that he has no need of large families or huge properties! He can
ensure and inherit nIs wn future existence by becoming a more highly-developed entity,
both physically and spiritually.
Couples will still have the right to have a child or two, but only by nI, and not
]ust as the result of plain sexual desire, or some animalistic urge to procreate. A child thus
conceived will have a far greater opportunity of developing into an otherwise creatively-
gifted or intellectual entity, than one born through accident or error and treated accord-
ingly as a burdensome penalty for a fleeting moment of sexual carelessness or drunken
stupidity and lust. Nankind regards Himself as being aDv the common animals, so let
him pIv I! by sudu1ng his base animal instincts!
!n the scheme that is being mooted, all of these matters would be addressed
during a childs early education, so that he or she would grow to maturity with this concept
already firmly implanted in their minds. However, for the adults who would be around at
the time of Renewal, special classes and lectures would be given over all the forms of
media communication available, so none should remain in ignorance.
(HI !n pI/ssI s!pp DaK In! !n snaws, an III nw am /IwaI
In! !n IImIIgn! ! !aK vI !n spaKIs II.}
Now. As to the proposed dramatic and ma]or Renewal of the Earth, itself. This can
only be accomplished through a modicum of sacrifice on the part of the population. !t
would be foolish to restore the world to its former pristine natural form and then begin all
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over again to sIa! I! by covering it over agaIn with the cities of Nankind. For regard-
less of how well-designed such cities of the future might be, they will still require gIun-
spa and impact heavily upon the environment around them. Nankind will still be tempted
to plunder its natural resources to enhance his own immediate surroundings and his
personal wealth and prosperity.
!n addition, life upon the surface will still entail exposure to the same vagaries of
weather, climate, and natural catastrophes. Earthquakes will still occur and volcanoes will
still erupt, as also will tsunamis, hurricanes and tornadoes, and even falling meteors,
continue to bring destruction upon the land from time to time. But the Earth is well able
to recover from these natural hazards and disasters, as she had already done for millions
of years. Nankinds artificially-constructed cities and his agricultural regions are not so
easily restored. All possible ways of constructing above-ground catastrophe-safe cities
have been considered, and all have sadly had to be re]ected. There is simply no way to
create a mpI!I) sa/ environment upon any part of this worlds exposed land surface.
The only real answer lies in building huge city-states upon the deep ocean floor, or
deep inside the solid crust of the Earth itself! This may sound utterly fantastic, but it is
well within the technological capacity of the Sages to build such structures as deep sea-
bed cities or to hollow out and furbish mighty caverns in the deep archean foundational
bedrock of the Earths crust. They can also supply such places with unlimited and inex-
haustible power, atmosphere, drinking water, light and warmth, as well as construct all the
requisite buildings, and equip them with all necessary furnishings and technological equip-
ment.
They can even produce arable-soil floors within these chambers, upon which crops
and vegetables could be grown! The lighting of these sea-domes and crustal caverns
would provide all the beneficial radiations plants currently derive from the sun, but with-
out the deadly emanations, such as excessive ultraviolet, X-ray, or other actinic radiations.
The inhabitants of these places would be able to grow trees, flowers, and all the plants
that are now found on the surface. Gentle, herbivorous animals could also be kept in
great park-like environs around these cities, and small domestic pets could be kept in
private homes. The occupants would also be given new and hitherto undreamt-of facili-
ties for pleasure and education - such as the universal holographic pro]ectors - the images
from which you are now being shown!
(HI III pIn! upwaIs a! a gIgan!I nIgIapnI suD!IIanan IIvIng I!)sap
DIng DIIIIan!I) pI)! vIna. AgaIn !n vas! nuIs / wa!nIs gasp In
wnI. Tnn III s!pp DaKwaI ! aIIw HazI ! !aK vI.}
All of these things and others too numerous to mention will be supplied to them
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!!aII) /I / an) xpns! The Sages and the millions of people they represent have no
use for money whatsoever. Everything they have is supplied entirely free by the Earth
itself! Work, as such, would essentially be on a purely voluntary basis and would involve
little physical effort. Those who wished to ]oin in any community efforts would be wel-
comed, whilst those preferring to follow some personal pursuit would be free to occupy
themselves with that instead. The new world that is envisaged here is one in which there
will be no dependence upon finance or wealth in any shape or form. Thus the only wealth
that would be sought after would be that which enriched the mind and the senses! Hob-
bies would be wholeheartedly encouraged, since the population would en]oy a super-
abundance of free time.
As to being separated from the external surface. This would not be a permanent
situation, since everyone would be free to en]oy free holiday safaris out upon the surface,
which would be granted twice or three times per year, each of a months duration. Tourists
would be taken up in the type of craft you can see in the background right now on your
screens. (HI a gIwIng nIgIapn / !nII a!!nan! Ia/! was snwn In !aII.}
Since these can carry up to twenty or thirty persons at a time in complete comfort,
and fully-provisioned, they need not stay in hotel-lodges unless they were visiting a spe-
cific area or site for several days.
Nany places of ancient historical importance and interest would be left protected
and preserved, and even monuments such as the Statue of Liberty, the Pyramids and
temples of Egypt, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Ta] Nahal in !ndia, the Potola in Tibet, and
many other similar great sites would be left in place and kept in full repair. All of the
worlds great sprawling cities would, however, be totally eradicated to make way for the
return of natural vegetation. But it would still be possible to view all the great natural
wonders of the world, since these are part and parcel of the quintessential reason for its
preservation and restoration!
!t is hoped that eventually, many nw natural wonders would be formed in the
future unsullied and virginal new world! For those adventurous souls who might prefer an
ocean holiday, replica sailing-ships would be built exactly as they once were during the
golden age of sail, except that they would be constructed of a wood-substitute. However,
they would be able to sail in complete safety since they would be constantly watched over
by scout craft and would contain many unobtrusive safety-features All trees in this reno-
vated Earth would be saIsan!, and specially- selected and trained squads of Earth
Rangers would patrol its entire surface in order to keep every living thing in good health
and every monument in good order.
(MaIIann nw s!pp /IwaI, !aKIng vI !n spaKIs II /Im HazI.}
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However, there is one great rule which would be applied universal to the entire
globe, as far as humanity was concerned, and that is simply God, the Great Creator Spirits
cardinal law to Nankind. Thou Shalt Not Kill!" This would be the one regulation that
would be enforced rigorously in the Renewed Earth and in all of its new communities.
The penalty would be swift and fitting, and it would apply equally to aII humans, regard-
less of whoever or wherever they were. Breaking this one single law would not bring any
long-winded court trials or lengthy terms of imprisonment. !f a person were found to
have IIDIa!I) broken this law, the penalty of instantaneous and complete bodily de-
struction would immediately be invoked and applied by the Earth Rangers previously
mentioned. The punishment of the spirit and soul of the malefactor would then be in
Gods Realm of Jurisdiction. This same penalty would apply equally to persons killing
animals or trees. However, aIn!aI killing - if clearly shown to be such - would attract
no penalty - other than perhaps being mentally isolated or shunned by ones peers and
neighbours.
Even deliberate damage to growing plants or flowers could be regarded as a mea-
sure of ones contemptible attitude towards life and the offender would be despised and
shunned by all around him or her. Food vegetables and plants would, of necessity, be
exempted from these rules since they have been proven not to experience pain, and so
can be prepared and eaten with a clear conscience. The great price however, that will
have to be paid by all the population of this renewed world would be the total absence of
meat or flesh of any kind from their diets. This would also include fish and poultry. No
animals of any sort would be killed and eaten - except by their na!uIaI pIa!Is. This is
how the Great Creator Spirit ordained it.
!f humans were intended to eat animal flesh of any kind they would have been
equipped with different teeth and claws. Even insects would have to be left alone,
whether a bloodsucking mosquito or a plain bothersome fly.
However, if one should inadvertently step upon a beetle or ant, this would simply
be regarded as an accidental death. Poisonous spiders and scorpions would have be
avoided, as would snakes, or any other animal or plant capable of in]uring a person.
Thus 11 you people of the Earth do decide to ap! this plan, you will have to adopt
a rather Buddhist outlook upon life. However, this does not mean you will be coerced into
any other religious belief than that which you already hold. But it Is believed that a mere
generation or two will soon modify human appetites toward a vegetarian diet. !n the
interim, however, to cater for the meat-withdrawal symptoms which many humans will
naturally experience, an artificial meat-substitute had already been formulated which is
both visually and sensorially indistinguishable from the real thing. And it can be produced
in several different flavours and textures! As for dairy products. There would be no
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embargo at all on any of these, since dairy animals, such as cows and goats, suffered no
harm from giving milk. !nstead they seemed to derive great benefit from it, both psycho-
logically and healthwise.
Education would be given to all who sought it, both scientifically and spiritually. !t
is hoped that with a couple of generations all humans in the world would be capable of
astral travel into other dimensions than their current Earthly ones of length, breadth,
height and time. They would then be able to expand their horizons far beyond the Here
and Now, and would be able to ]ourney, in the Spirit, across the Galaxy and eventually
across the universe!
Also, it is believed that most people would soon develop the power of mental telepa-
thy. This is a very important sense to acquire since it would result in virtually complete
openness and honest in dealing with one another. !t would also help to bring a new sense
of peace and quiet into a community so that eventually, speaking or singing vocally would
be reserved as being a pleasant pastime and a form of entertaiment. Thus people would
be able to converse and exchange ideas and views right around the globe, and vn /aI
D)n, without the need for audio-visual technology! Even computers would become
museum-pieces in such a world, since the new style UnIvIs WI WD" would be
always online within ones own mind! But computers would still be available for those
preferring Hands-On" experience.
(HI III nw s!pp /IwaI agaIn, ! IIIv MaIIann as !n spaKI.}
Finally there are the matters of Business, Government, Law-Enforcement and
Politics. Business would cease to exist beyond a purely local service level, since there
would be no finance, and, consequently, without money or ownership of personal prop-
erty, thieving and robbery would also vanish, and there would be no wealthy tycoons. All
Nankind, for once, would at last be equal! Obviously those who are currently weathy and
in positions of power would fight this concept tooth and nail, but since the vast bulk of
humanity are ordinary people who struggle to make ends meet, the presently rich and
powerful would be as voices crying in the wilderness, especially after all their wealth and
social standing became null and void! They would simply have to accept the situation and
re]oin the One-Class human race!
Governments would follow much the same fate. All the present Heads of Govern-
ments would cease to have any place in the Renewed World - wnIn Is n / !n
pIImaI) Iasns wn) !n) nav n! Dn appIan wI!n !nIs pIpsaI1 The only per-
sons who would have any influence above that of the ordinary citizen of Earth would be
the Great Assembly of Sages. These would be a body of the wisest humans on the
planet, each of them representing a single city-state, and who had be selected by their
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fellow citizens, using a !Ipa!nI ppuIaII!) DaII!. They would receive no financial
remuneration. Their only repayment would be in the honour and plaudits of their own
electorate. They would not only represent the interests of their fellow citizens, for the
benefit of their own state, but would also be expected to ]oin in any debates or discussions
regarding matters concerning the entire world and its population.
Thus you can see that the form of Earthly administration proposed most closely
approaches that of the original democacy of ancient Greece, but with many additional
benefits. !t is the closest thing to an Earthly Utopia that can be put into actual practice.
Nany other options were considered but had to be re]ected as being too restrictive, dra-
conian or potentially dictatorial. This way you would aII be )uI wn rulers, instead of
being governed by, and serving the interests of, a rich and powerful elitist group of politi-
cians or wealthy industrialists. There would be no Public Service organization as such,
since this is merely the executive arm of your present elitist political forms of government.
All public service in the world which we are advocating would be performed by unpaid
volunteers who wished simply and purely to sIv the community, instead of IunnIng I! on
behalf of an elitist political party government!
(A! !nIs pIn!, III nIu nIs pI!In / !n s!a!mn! an s!pp DaK !
maK wa) /I DIw ! m /IwaI agaIn an sum up !n vIaII pIpsaI.}
Ny dear friends and fellow Earthlings! You have now heard and seen the basic
outlines of our proposal, and all its ramifications of dramatic sweeping change. We firmly
believe it to be the only remedy for the current terminal plight of the planet if no positive
and affirmative action is taken to rescue it in the very near future.
We have endeavoured to touch all the bases as to how the Sages would set about
renewing this once beautiful ]ewel of the solar system. Now we can only let you ]udge for
yourselves if such an undertaking would be better than permitting the whole of Earths
lifeforms - including our own - to rapidly be extinguished over the next several decades.
We must remind you that once the Earths decay and corruption passes the PIn! / N
P!uIn, it will be too late to decide to accept this offer. Unfortunately, that PIn! / N
P!uIn is almost upon us and your politicians do not have the faintest inkling of a solution
to offer!
You have all seen images of Nars and, no doubt, the amazing vizualizations of how
it might be terraformed back to life over the next several decades. Some Governmental
departments and Space Authorities may even have suggested that the revived planet
Nars will be the future haven of Earths human life, as well as some of Earths other
biology. But sadly, we have to point out that the proposed Nars pro]ect wIII n! be quite
so speedily accomplished as you have been led to believe. Nor would that tiny planet be
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able to accommodate even a !n!n of Earths present population, let alone any of its
wIIII/! Also, ! should point out that the Nars-bound spaceships required to ferry any
remaining humans still alive by that time, will be largely filled with covertly pre-selected
elitist groups and their families.
There will be no room for ordinary working-class people in such an exercise as is
suggested for the colonization of Nars. True, a certain percentage of !nnIaI personnel
and their families will be permitted to ]oin them, but only because of their necessary
expertise in building habitations, growing food, and maintaining the generation of a breath-
able atmosphere there, as well as the myriad other technological skills required to keep
these useless pioneers" alive. The elitists possess no practical skills to qualify them as
pioneers. Their skill lies solely in !aIKIng - an expensive luxury that will be worth at least
five dollars a breath, and one that might be deemed an appalling waste of highly-expen-
sive air in a slowly-developing planetary atmosphere! As with all political elitists, it will
of course, be expedient to take along a sizeable contingent of the mIII!aI), preferably
those wI!nu! /amIIIs, to prevent the technologists staging a rebellion, and taking over
the planet for themselves!
Do ! need to elaborate further upon this rather farcical concept of a Nartian colony?
Somehow, ! think not!
We believe that this should be sufficient information regarding this marvellous pro-
posal, for most of the worlds population to make a ]udgment as to whether they would
prefer or not to carry on with the present system and situation. One which, if allowed to
continue unchecked can only lead to ultimate and quite imminent destruction of all life
upon this planet. !f you wish to continue to sit back hoping that the worlds governments
will begin to do something about it, then that will be )uI funeral! !f such na been their
honest intent - way back when all of this impending disaster was first mooted by your
scientists - it would have been well in hand by now. Unfortunately, the worlds politicians
have stood idly by, hoping that the problem would perhaps go away. Bu! saI), I! nasn!1
!t is now vas!I) wIs than it was then!
The decision, my friends, rest with )u )uIsIvs, not with those you have ap-
pointed to preserve you from these things. They have proved themselves totally ineffec-
tual and incapable of doing anything about it. However, rest assurred that they have n!
been slack in ensuring their wn survival! The Nars Revival and Terraforming Pro]ect
proceeds even as ! speak, although, alas, ! cannot reassure the elitists of its completion in
time to save their worthless hides! The technologists concerned have encountered too
many unexpected problems for it to now be their salvation. No, this offer is being ex-
tended directly to you, my fellow citizens of the world, so only you can speak for your-
selves in this.
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You can do this quite simply without having to introduce any of the usual politi-
cians election campaigns, polling-booths, or ballot-boxes. We have the means to moni-
tor your collective thought-waves from any part of the world in a similar manner to that in
which people used to measure audience approval or otherwise by their sustained ap-
plause, using an Audience Reaction Nonitor" .
All that you will be required to do here is to simply In1nR your vote - "YESl" or
"NOl" - in your minds for around fifteen to twenty seconds, after ! give you the word
Votel", and the umuIa!Iv !nugn!-wavs of you all, psI!Iv and nga!Iv, will be mea-
sured by our ships, that are stationed right now, over all the principal areas of moderate to
heavy population density around the world!
! will call this "VoIel" signal twice, with a twenty-second interval in between the
two calls. Those of you who wanI our proposal to be set in motion should vote "YESl"
in your minds and sustain that psI!Iv !nugn! for not less than fifteen seconds. Then,
after twenty seconds have elapsed, ! will call "VoIel" again, and this time, those of you
who do noI wish the proposal to go ahead, must say "NOl" in your minds, and remain
!nInKIng nga!IvI) for the same length of time.
Then ! will say "Donel" and you can all relax whilst we then swiftly total together
the cumulative responses to each. ! hope to announce announce the results within a
matter of minutes. ! hope that everyone understands this, if you have any doubts, ask
those around you now, as the voting will commence in sixty seconds from - AOW l"
There followed a repeated high-pitched bleeping sound, which marked off the sec-
onds, from all quarters of the sky in every populous region of globes surface. The whole
world, with very few exceptions, seemed to hold its collective breath as the seconds
bleeped by. Then suddenly Drews hugely-magnified voice, echoed by a hundred ships,
boomed forth with the first call - "Votel" And many millions of people filled their minds
with the word "YESl"- forcing themselves to cling to the word as if it were emblazoned a
mile high upon the inner surface of their minds.
Then, after a twenty-second interval, his voice again boomed forth with his sn
call - "Votel" And now it was the turn of other millions to force themselves to think
"NOl", and strive to keep !na! world blazing upon their brains. However, in this second
case, there were many whose minds were divided against themselves. Their heads told
them - after many years of blind acceptance of cunning political persuasion - to re]ect any
such Utopian ideals as this proposal appeared to be. But their hearts felt the sudden
fervour of a new hope. A chance to break free of all the tired old political party-systems
which promised Utopia but delivered Nisery, the arrogance of public-servant Jacks-!n-
Office and the lofty, uncaring ignorance of the filthy rich. Not to mention a final escape
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from the grasping greedy clutches of the Treasury and the Taxman! And so these
wavering, conflicting minds and hearts cancelled themselves out and did not register at all
upon the Sages Thought-Neters.
Avistar had arranged that the results from each ship would be relayed as soon as
they were determined to their own craft, which hovered before them in the cold Hima-
layan air. As soon as all were in and totals arrived at, the captain of their craft was to relay
the results telpathically to Avistar and all five of his human colleagues.
The result when it came was totally overwhelming. At least seventy-nine percent of
the Earths human population had voted YESl" !n some of the less fortunate regions of
the world, it was reported, there had been virtually n negative votes at all! Nany Asian
and African nations were close to the ninety-five percent figure! Amazingly, even the
Americans had come in at seventy percent in favour, whilst some of the much more con-
servative European states had registered the lowest with less than sixty percent - but this
did n! include the population of Great Britain, who voted as high as the Americans, along
with Canada.
Australia and New Zealand, both weary unto death of an almost unchanging political
system, came in at close to eighty percent, whilst the conservative Japanese voted as low
as fifty percent. But China, like most other Asian countries that had been heavily down-
trodden for centuries, first by godlike oppressive emperors, and then by equally oppres-
sive and corrupt political regimes, voted a staggering ninety-nine percent in favour! Rus-
sia, so recently freed from the crushing heel of Communism, surprisingly matched most of
the Europeans. Perhaps they had had enough of change? Southeastern Asia and Oceania
levelled with many of the Arab nations at around eighty-five percent or so, as did the
Southern and Central Americans. Altogether it was a great landslide victory for the Sages
proposal!
Neanwhile, back at the great sports arena in Athens, the huge television screens
around the magnificent stadium still showed the same images of the five friends and their
amazingly tall Avallahan, standing upon the edge of a floodlit mountainous plateau, against
a backdrop of velvet black, star-]ewelled sky.
The entire audience in the vast arena were almost silent as were the marshalled
representatives of almost every nation of the globe, who stood still and silent in its central
smoothly lawned arena. They, like the rest of the watching world, were awaiting the final
result of this momentous and eerily outlandish poll!
Suddenly there came a great gasp as Drews handsome, and by now, familiar blond-
beared face filled the gigantic screens. His long blonde locks blew across his features in a
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vagrant Tibetan wind, and an enigmatic half-smile played around his lips. His shining
brilliant blue eyes looked straight into the camera - and thus into the eyes of all the world
as he began to speak.
Ny Fellow Citizens of Earth! The results are now to hand and all the world has
responded! So without further ado, ! will give you the final result of our great global
poll! According to the results now completely tallied and to hand, the proposal has been
carr1ed by seVenIy-n1ne percenI of the Earths population! So ! hereby declare the
proposal to be weII and IruIy a111rmed! On behalf of the Sages and their people who
will be implementing this proposal in due course, ! thank each and every one of you in
that seventy-eight percent for your vote of confidence. The Sages are already aware of
your excellent decision, and they wish to thank you for your cooperation. They will soon
be making appropriate representations to your various Heads of State and Government.
You will now be kept fully advised through the worlds many media channels of all
further developments, within each nation, and we trust that your leaders both political,
military and financial, will have the good sense to pay careful heed to the already-deter-
mined will of their fellow-countrymen wherever they may be! For the present, they will
be allowed to continue in their present roles, until the Sages have prepared your future
new homelands, then they mus! bow to the inevitable changes that the final transition will
bring. Remember, my friends that you are now the IaI governors of your future, and that
these previously-elected or self-appointed leaders will only be holding their posts tempo-
rarily and under sufferance.
The Sages ask that you remain calm and law-abiding until the final Transition is
completed. Then these leaders must step aside and ]oin you simply as fellow-citizens. Any
attempt now to resist the will of the people of Earth on their part, will result in their
immediate replacement and transportation elsewhere. The Sages ask that Order and
CaIm be your watchword, and that there shall be no civil disobedience or other disrup-
tions in the interim.
Any nation which re1uses to abide by this proposal, once it is drafted and finalized
by every nation on the Earth, will be excluded from further participation in it, and will be
ostracized by all other nations. This will mean that they will noI be provided with a new
homeland - and since aII the existing surface land will eventually be re-zoned as an
TnIernaI1onaI AaIure ReserVe there will be no place left for them upon the surface
of this planet. Perhaps they might be given free transportation en masse to Mars? This,
incidentally is noI a threat, for such is not the way of the Sages, As we say on Earth -
TnI Is mI !nan n wa) ! sKIn a a!1
Drew finally concluded his statement with a few personal remarks.
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There is little more to add now, my friends, except that we ourselves will shortly be
returned to our own lands and will become simple citizens of the world like the rest of you.
We trust that you will all now look forward with great anticipation to a wonderful new
future in a magnificently renovated world - as )u wIII s aDv us - and that the Great
Creative Spirit of God will bless and proper you all! On behalf of the Sages and their
wonderful people, my colleagues and myself, ! will now bid you all a heartfelt Goodye
and Godspeed!"
With that closing remark, the camera drew back slowly to show all the six figures
standing together near the plateaus edge, smiling and waving happily and pointing up
above their heads. The camera now swung up to reveal a sort of gigantic holographic
movie-clips" show of all the proposed worlds both in vast hemispherical subterranean
caverns and within huge undersea domes, each filled with brilliant light, and teeming with
life, colour and scenery, one was treated to moving scenes filled with animals and people,
palatial houses and hover-cars and flying craft of all kinds.
One sequence showed a great circular craft sliding out of the airlock gates of a great
deep ocean dome, to ascend rapidly to the surface and then up into a beautiful azure blue
sky. !t then flew across a white-sanded coastline and displayed many breath-taking views
of the gloriously green, restored Earth Sanctuary, teeming with vast herds of animal life
and filled with wonderfully verdant scenery. !t was almost as if one were peering down
upon it all through the keen eyes of a great soaring eagle! !t was magnificent! The black
sky framing these images enhanced them beautifully.
The sheer glory of it all moved thousands in the Stadium and millions of home-
viewers to tears of pure ]oy. !t looked like a vision of Heaven itself! To many of those
believers who had read the last Book in the Holy Bible, it looked like the Pnva! aI!n,
the new aI!nI) PaIaIs that was promised in Christs prophetic Revelation To Saint John,
in the first verse of its penultimate chapter!
The professor had really outdone himself in translating the Sages visions into ac-
tual, almost tangible tri-dimensional visual grandeur! Even his colleagues were totally
dumbfounded by the sheer beauty of the scenes!
The last scene on the worlds Tv screens was a close-up view of five brightly-shining
faces all apparently gazing spellbound up toward Heaven, as the final words rang out - in
Avistars very own deeply-toned and, melodiously-ringing voice -
REmEmBER THT5!
Then whilst the world wondered and marvelled at the incredible speech they had
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]ust heard and the marvellous depictions they had ]ust witnessed - an II1 - sud-
denly the Olympic Opening Ceremony resumed as though nothing had intervened at all,
and the President of the Olympic Committee began his formal opening address from a
spotlighted podium. All the viewers eyes now became focussed upon the brightly-lit and
fascinating stadium scene before them, and for the moment the Nessage was mentally
set aside. But it was noI 1orgoIIen! !t would be viewed over and over again on video,
both home-recorded and in the media.
World governments were powerless to prevent it from being re-viewed, or its deep-
ening impact, as all of its many great implications steadily sank deeper into the conscious-
ness of the worlds population. The Sages were in no hurry. They would allow it to
ferment and simmer, and let the media have their field-day with it. Soon the time would
be ripe to finally mediate with the Outer Worlds leaders!
Back at the high Tibetan plateau, the spacecrafts green camera light winked out to
be replaced by a red one, and the ship now returned to its original landing place. The five
companions, having at last completed their great task, made their way back toward it,
leaving Avistar alone to make his telepathic report of their huge success to the Sages in
Shamballah. They were welcomed back aboard by the ships captain who was beaming
from ear to ear at their magnificent performance, and ushered into their seats. By the
time Avistar at last returned aboard - himself smiling broadly - they had all settled back,
sighing with relief from the strain of their difficult and exacting ambassadorial task.
However, they were also extremely pleased with the results that had been achieved and
were by now talking and laughing about it all quite animatedly.
Avistar stood before them, and regarded them all with shining eyes. And there was
a great deal of respect in his voice as he told them how proud he personally was of them
all, and that the Sages had requested him to pass on their most humble and heartfelt
thanks for their excellent performance. Apparently, they had been able to make a
telepathic link-up with the captains mind as he operated the camera, and in this way they
had witnessed the entire presentation from start to finish. As far as they were concerned
their performance had been perfection itself. !n view of the amazingly high psI!Iv
response that had been recorded, they should now have relatively little difficulty in finally
convincing the worlds Leaders and Heads of State that they had no other recourse than to
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bow to the will of the huge ma]ority, and accept the situation as a fait accomli.
Seventy-nine percent of the entire population had decided in favour of the pro]ect,
and he had good reason to believe that the residual 21 percent largely consisted of Gov-
ernment and State employees, and their superiors, both Public Service and political. He
believed that many of these, too, would soon change their minds, when they sensed the
mood of the ma]ority, and would go along with the rest of the world.
He expected that there would probably be a small hard-core group of perhaps five
percent left, comprised of the elitist ultra-rich and the power-politicians. But he felt that
once !n) realized that there would be simply no place left for them to go, and that their
wealth would soon become totally useless, they, too, would soon be crying to be admitted
into the New World! As far as he and the Sages were concerned, in so many words, the
Die was Already Cast" and All Systems Were Go"!
The Sages had already commisioned a group of scientists and design architects to
make a start upon designs for the proposed Cavern Worlds and Dome-Cities. !n fact
Avistar openly admitted that he had detected a note of suppressed excitement in their
telepathic communique at the prospect of a great new challenge to their creative skills!
He then told them that he had some excellent news for them all. The Sages had
instructed him to deliver the five to Drews home in Australia, before returning to the
!nner Earth. So since they were now all aboard, and everything was in order, why not set
a course directly to Glengarry? Drew could hardly believe his ears! Next stop HOME!
Then he thought of the others. Wouldnt they like to be taken to their own homes, too?
!t was a bit unfair to take them back to Australia, when they could so easily be dropped off
at their own homes! He put this to Avistar, but the other four shouted him down. No
wayl They all wanted to go back to Glengarry, even if only to say GD)1 to Joan and
Bob and their family! And of course, he mustnt forget that all their travel-gear was there,
too!
!n the face of such overwhelming odds, Drew was forced to capitulate - but with a
big happy grin all over his dial! Thanks a lot, folks!" he beamed. !m sure Joan and Bob
will roll out the Red Carpet for you all!" Then he added, And a nice big roasI d1nner,
too!" Fortunately, this last term was lost on Avistar, who had no notion of the term - or
the roast beef that was implicit in it!
After some slightly comlicated discussion between Drew, Avistar and the ships helms-
man, the location was eventually pinpointed and the coordinates entered into the crafts
steering and directional computer. Then at last the ship rose high into the lightening sky
and began to move at a comfortable speed toward the south east.
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But Avistar still had another pleasant surprise to spring upon them. This time upon
Chas in particular. He told him that he had conferred with the Sages about the matter of
transferring a copy of Quen Lobsangs AquII WIsm Da!a-FII into Charles mind,
and that they had told him that it could be done at long-range by himself, with a modicum
of additional vril input of the others present. The Sages would lay hands upon Quen
Lobsang (wnm !n) na aIIa) sn! /I} and pro]ect a copied imprint of the knowl-
edge-repository of his brain telepathically into Charles mind. The intervening crust of the
Earth would in no way affect such a transfer!
All that would be required would be Charles own complete willingness to receive
the vast store of information into his brain, and the help of a fair amount of additional vril
power from his friends. Avistar could then channel and direct the file" of information
through his own highly-receptive mind directly into Charles commodious brain! !t would
be a simple as that! The Sages would be awaiting Avistars call when they were ready to
proceed! !n the meantime they wished them all Bon voyage!" and a happy homecom-
ing!
Chas was over the Noon at this absolutely marvellous news. He had long ago
abandoned all hope of ever actually receiving the gift, so he would have performed cart-
wheels on the spot had there been sufficient free space to do so! Drew promised him that
it would be the second item on the agenda as soon as they touched down at Glengarry.
The first item on his agenda would be to give his wonderful Num, Joan, and dear old Bob,
a great big hug apiece!
The captain now announced that their ship was ]ust on the point of crossing the
northern coastline of Australia, and they all turned to the wrap-around screen to watch
the scene below, as the fist hint of piccaninny daylight was ]ust beginning to dawn to-
wards the east. As they passed across the great swamplands and rocky plateaus of the
Kakadu region of Arnhem Land, The view was at first of a dark barely discernible mass of
]umbled indistinct terrain below. But as the edge of the sun began to inch out the eastern
horizon of the mighty Pacific Ocean, they were able to see more of the land below. Be-
cause they were flying at around twelve miles high, they had to rely upon the magnifica-
tion control to distinguish features in the purple haze of early dawn. Now they were
travelling parallel to the bottom edge of the Gulf of Carpentaria, above the Barkly Table-
lands, then suddenly Drew was able to recognize the border township of Camooweal as
they sped on over Queensland. Then thanks the greatly enlarged view, he spotted the
sprawling township of Cloncurry, the home of Quantas (unsIan An NI!nIn TI-
II!I) AII 5IvI}. Here he was ]ust about to holler to Avistar that they were going to
overshoot Winton any second, when the craft suddenly stopped dead in mid-flight!
Fortunately, because it created its own internal gravitation, they felt no sudden
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lurching sense of being flung across the cabin. !nstead, they felt nothing at all. The only
thing that told them the craft had stopped was the screen-vision! Now, still in the haze
of dawn, the craft began a rapid elevator descent, and the ground appeared to be rushing
up to meet them on the screen. Drew began to recognise the countryside in between the
two outback towns of Winton and Hughenden, but it was Errol who first spotted the sprawl
of buildings that surrounded the Glengarry homestead!
Avistar ordered the ship to be brought to a hovering stop at around a mile above the
cattle-station. The downward-viewing screen was now enlarged even more so that they
could see all the details of trees and animals around the various sheds, but fortunately
there were no people around. As yet, since it was now midwinter in the outback of
Queensland and there was probably a stiff freezing westerly blowing across from Antarc-
tica. Fortunately the craft was silent, so it attracted no attention at this height.
Where do you think we should put down, Drew?" asked the Avallahan. So as to
avoid being seen? We do not wish to frighten your family or their servants! We are well
aware of the Flying-Saucer" paranoia that grips the world!"
Drew pointed to the baked clay airstrip behind the big shed. ! think you could land
!nI without being observed. !ts not far for us to walk up to the house."
Avistar nodded and signalled the pilot to put the craft down. Now!" he said, as they
felt the ship come to rest. !t is time for us to part for the moment as we cannot loiter in
such an exposed place. ! must ask you all to exit the craft with all possible speed and then
we will immediately ascend again! However, ! shall return here later on the astral plane
to perform the ritual of Transfer upon Charles, here. !t will be no different than if ! were
to do it in a corporeal state, and there is plenty of vril power among you all to energize the
process! Name a good hour for this, Drew, as we shall require absolute privacy away from
any of your family!"
Drew thought hastily. How about say, five or six Earth-hours after darkness falls
this evening? !n around seventeen Earth-hours? Everyone will be in bed by then, except
us, so we will have complete freedom from any interruption. Would this be satisfactory,
Avistar?"
The tall Avallahan nodded in agreement. He did a quick calculation, then he said, !
shall return in 15 part-periods then! Perhaps one of you might care to begin to maintain
a mental-beacon around that time to help guide me here?"
Dont worry!" grinned Drew. W aII wIII1 Now wed better not keep you any
longer or you wIII be seen!" He gripped Avistars huge hand tightly. Thank you, old
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friend, for your kindness! We will look forward to a better chance to farewell you tonight!
Please give our kindest respects to the Sages for us all!" With that, the five of them
hurried into the elevator and waved a cheery adieu to Avistar and his crew. They had no
sooner cleared the exit of the elevator shaft, than it was drawn back up into the ship,
which immediately shot upwards at warp-speed and had vanished from their sight in a
matter of seconds. They all stood and stared at each other in total bewilderment for a full
minute, before setting off to trudge up the rise toward the outbuildings surrounding the
homestead - and its totally unsuspecting occupants! Drew was brimming over with tense
excitement, and the others were in little lesser shape, as they hurried up to and through
the barn, then out into the back yard of the big sprawling house.
They were half way up the back verandah steps when the door was suddenly flung
open and the screen-door crashed back against the weatherboard wall. A figure shot out
and almost bowled Drew backwards down the steps. !t was his beloved Num, and Bob
was only a yard behind her, followed by their three youngsters!
Oh, what tears of utter happiness flowed freely then, as Joan clung to Drews neck,
weeping and laughing with overwhelming ]oy at the same time! Even Bobs cheeks were
running with tears as he ]oined in the welcoming huddle, and Drew himself suddenly
found a huge lump in his throat, as the salty tears began to flow from his own eyes. The
other four stood back a moment until the initial dam of pent-up emotion had finished
overflowing, and then it was their turn to be hugged and kissed in turn by both Joan and
Bob. Drew was now busily hugging his younger step-brother, Charlie, and his two step-
sisters all at the same time. !t was an amazing scene to behold!
During all this emotion-charged scene, not a single coherent word was spoken, until
at length the elder of Drews young sisters cried out: Heyl Youre all famous! We saw
you all on TV! Dads even got a video of it all! Just like you told everyone to do! !t was
really excellent!"
Hey, Yair!" cried young Charlie. We all got the shock of our lives! Dad thought
he was recording the OI)mpI OpnIng, but when he checked it afterwards to see it was
all OK, there YOU were, Drew! And you others, too ! WOW! !t was asoIuIeIy
AW5OmE!"
You mean you didnt see us while the Opening ceremony was actually going on?"
asked Drew, rather surprized. Then he learned that during the actual broadcast all that
most people had apparently seen at the time, beyond the actual Olympic spectacle, had
been a momentary DIu sIn such as occurred sometimes when there was a glitch
with one of the cameras.
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However, afterwards, people began to get weird mmI)-/IasnDaKs of all the
material that had been subliminally implanted from Tibet, and when they checked their
recorders, I! was aII Inere on tape, Ins!a of the Olympic Opening Ceremony!
As it turned out nearly everyone who had a video had done exactly what Drew had
said, and had recorded their broadcast. Thus, those who had missed it for one reason or
another, were soon able to see it all on other folks tapes. But in any case, after the Games
Ceremony was ended, the Tv and radio channels involved had all shown the strange
mystery broadcast in its entirety. Knowing the media, it would probably be aired over and
over now, as the channels vied with each other to present this amazing broadcast! Not
to mention the full text in all the newspapers!
There was ]ust n possible way any Government authorities could do a thing about
it, short of actually sending the police, FB! or military around to everybodys homes to
confiscate their tape-cassettes, pIus clamping down on the media! FaI Cnance! !n any
case, wna! would be the po1nI? Everyone had aIIa) seen I!!
Bob and Joan hadnt immediately recognized Drew and Errol on account of their
beards and the strange lighting. All four of them had also seemed to shine like ghosts,
too, which had added to the uncertainty. But young Charlie had insisted that it was them,
so after they had carefully watched the tape a couple of times over, they saw that he was
right! But it had been an enormous shock to see them under such incredible circum-
stances, and they were still knocked for a loop by it all! Especially the content of their
transmission! That had been u!!II) as!unIng - and those wonderful pictures of the
new world, the caverns and the underwater domed cities!
Was it truly all /I IaI? Neither Bob or Joan could get their heads around the
enormity of the undertaking! However, Joan at least grasped the possibilities because
shed read about Ine worId e1ng renewed in the Bible! Shed already pointed this
out to Bob, and he had been staggered by it.
The questions flowed thick and fast, but Joan guessed that they were all famished,
and began to cook them all an enormous fried breakfast! When she asked them what
they been eating all this time, and they told her it had all been vegetarian stuff, she was
quite appalled. How could any red-blooded human being possibly live on rabbit-food, she
enquired., quite aghast at the idea.
Drew told her that eventually the world would have to get used to the thought,
when the main task was finished and people began moving into their new places under-
ground. Neat-eating would be the biggest NO-NO" of all, next to killing any living
things. Bob himself was still reeling from !nIs part of their broadcast announcement!
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He wanted to know how the hell a cattleman like himself could survive if the whole
world was going to be forced to become vegetarian?! Drew couldnt answer him right
away, except to say that he wuIn! n to run a cattle-station once all this came about
- all theyd need from then on would be provided entirely free!
However, by this time they were all sitting gaping down at steaming plates of fried
bacon, tomatoes, sausages and eggs with all the trimmings! All thoughts of vegetarian-
ism immediately crumbled away to nothing as the four of them ]oined the rest of the
family in doing the fullest possible ]ustice to the best and biggest breakfast of their lives!
This was followed rapidly by lashings of buttered toast and marmalade, and washed down
by pint mugs of scalding hot coffee!
When at length they leaned back in their chairs gasping, replete and stuffed to the
gills with the real fair-dinkum food theyd been pining for, Bob grinned at Drew.
Now !d like to hear how youre gonna manage without tucker like that, Drew, in
this wonderful new world of yours!" Both Drew and Errol stared back at him. Neither of
them had a ready answer! But Bob wasnt finished yet.
Naybe we could have a nice barbecue lunch today, eh, Joan!" he laughed, To
celebrate the bloody prodigals return! Waddaya reckon, love? Will ! get the barbie
crackin? ! think we should have a few decent T-bones left in the freezer!"
Joan frowned back at him. Aw, come on now, Bob! Give it a Is!! Youre ]ust being
a gI) pIg! Why! Youve only ]ust had your blooming breakfast!" She smiled a quick
unspoken apology on Bobs behalf around their guests
!t was then that she first really noticed the strange clothes the four were wearing.
Ny Word!" she said. where on earth did you get those nice-looking outfits? There
almost like they used to wear in the olden days, arent they! You know - like those Royal
Heralds used to wear when they were announcing the King!!"
Drew was surprised by her astute observation.
You know, Num! Youre absolutely right! !ts been bugging me a bit too! But !
guess, come to think of it, thats basically what we wI doing! Heralding a new sort of
Kingdom" on the Earth!"
Hey! Yeah!" put in Errol enthusiastically."Thats exactly right! Never occurred to me
either!"
Here Chas finally found his voice. Aye, laddies, but be careful that ye dont run awa
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wi the idea that ye were heralding the Saicond Coming o Jsus CnIIs!! Ah dinna thenk
yon Sages or even Aivistar, are exactly CnIs!Ians! They struck me more as bein some
sairt o HIns I BnIs!s! Hooaiver, thats not tae say that theyre heathens! After
a, they do believe in the same guid Lord God as we dae!"
Bobs interest was now aroused. Whats all this about Sages" an Avis - thingo",
Chas?" he asked. Who are they? Heyl An Yair! Who was that great big shining white
feller who was standin behind you when you were being shown on Tv? Was he from
where youve been this past few weeks? Are they all as big as him down there?"
How do )u know wnI weve been, Bob?" asked Drew in surprise. ! havent told
you yet!"
No, but the girls told your Num - InsI nI mIn!" said Bob. She told me the
whole story - an at first ! thought she was off her rocker. But she was so bloody a
I!aIn about it all, ! finally had no choice but to believe her!" Then he turned to the girls.
Was that all IaII) /aII InKum, you two?" he asked. Did you come an talk to Joan inside
her head?"
The two girls smiled back at him and nodded vigorously. Every last word!" said
Narianne, then she smiled at Bobs still incredulous expression. Hns! 1n)un1
Drew threw up his hands in surrender. Looks like were going to have to spill the
whole beans, Errol, or Bobs gonna be quizzing us for weeks!"
Errol nodded wearily, Yeah! Guess so! But lets start with the short version, bro,
otherwise well be here till midnight!" He gave Drew a keen stare as he said this, and
nodded toward Chas meaningfully. Avistar would be back at eleven pm!
And so, after they had ad]ourned to the lounge room with Bob and Joan, leaving the
young girls to wash up the breakfast things, Drew, Errol and the professor told them all
that had transpired since they had finally vanished down the pit and all the amazing things
they had encountered and experienced both before and after they met the Sages, and
Hazel and Narianne vouchsafed everything they said.
Bob and Joan sat there utterly speechless as they told them all the highlights of their
amazing adventures. Obviously they had to leave out an awful lot of lesser details but
they could fill in the blanks in future discussions. Bob was so totally absorbed by their
combined accounts of the !nner and intercrustal worlds that he completely forgot all
about his proposed DaIDu Iunn - much to Joans secret relief!
!n the end it was very close to dusk before the debriefing was finally abandoned.
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Even then there was still a great deal left untold, but at least Drews folks had to accept
what they had heard as DIng !Iu. Five people like these before them could hardly have
concoted such a fantastic tale and all be able to back each other up like this! By the time
Drew declared that enough was enough for now, their heads were swimming with all this
huge overload of brand new information!
But now they were in for yet another rather traumatic shock. There came a loud
hammering on the back door, so Bob hurried out of the room to see who it was. The group
in the lounge heard some sort of altercation in which Bob seemed to be giving urgent
orders to someone. Then ]ust as Drew was rising to his feet, Bob reappeared looking
rather flustered.
Somethings the matter with Jimmy!" he cried. Couple of the hands ]ust found
him hiding under a bench in the barn shakin with terror and bawling his eyes out! He
reckons he saw a flying-saucer land down near the airstrip this morning after all the fellers
had left on their rounds, an hes been curled up under there ever since!
Poor little bugger reckons that he saw a bunch of strange-lookin spirits getting out
of it, so he shot through and hid himself! Now the bloody blokes cant get him to come
out!"
Drew was about to head straight off outside, but Errol grabbed him by the wrist.
Hey! Youre not going out I1Re InaI are you, buddy?" he said, nodding at Drews quaint
custume. what if sombody IgnIzs you?" Drew realized the sense in Errols thought,
so he told Bob to go and see Jimmy and hed be along in a couple of ticks. Then as Bob
shot off outside, Drew went into his room and changed into an old pair of ]eans and a T-
shirt. As he passed his dressing-stand mirror he caught sightof his beared face. Oh, sod
1I!" he hissed, racing into the bathroom and snatching up Nariannes hair-scissors. Swiftly
he hacked at the worst of his long blond beard, until he looked more like his old self again.
Then he raced back out through the lounge room, past a row of startled faces and
out across the yard toward the big iron barn.
!t wasnt hard to find the scene of the action, as Bob was yelling loudly at Jimmy to
Pull himself together and bloody come on out of there"! By the time Drew got there, Bob
had hold of Jimmys booted ankles trying to drag him out by main force! The poor yard-
hand was cling for dear life to a leg of the bench weeping and sobbing in a pitiful fashion!
Leave go of him, Bob! Drew hissed in Bobs ear. Let m have a go! Youre only
making matters a bloody sight worse!"
Nuttering to himself ferociously, Bob reluctantly let go and stood aside. !ts no
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bloody us, Drew!" he growled. The silly buggers scared himself witless!"
But Drew got down on all fours and crawled under the table until he was almost
eyeball to eyeball with Jimmy, who was trembling all over. Right, Jimmy, mate!" he said.
Dyou know who T am?"
The dark little yard-hand stared at him hard out of a terrified eye for a moment, then
his terror turned slowly to puzzlement. Hey, Nista Drew, what you doin here? How you
get back out that big hole? You climb up ìm OK?" He started grinning a big white smile -
until he suddenly recalled what had terrified him. Wheres them ghost fellas, Nista
Drew? They come down in a big shiny hub-cap, like on truck, only great big fella! Then
all them come right up here to catch me, this mornin!" His eyes rolled around fearfully.
Boss ]us try to get me out for èm!"
No he In!, Jimmy!" said Drew quietly, patting his quaking shoulder. He was only
trying to tell you !n) arenI nere, mate!" Theyve gone away long time back! Youre
OK, mate! Tm nI nw! ND)s gonna get you! 5n! `m aII //!" He grinned
reassuringly at Jimmy. No ghost fella touch you now 1m back! You be all right now. OK?
You trust Drew, OK, Jimmy? Drew nvI !II IIs to you, eh!"
No, Nista Drew!. ! come out OK now for you!" And out Jimmy came, with a huge
white toothed grin all over his face!
Then once he saw he was safe, and that the Boss, was no longer mad at him, he told
them how hed woken that morning and gone outside to relieve himself, only to see a
gigantic shiny round thing coming straight down out of the sky. !t had stopped, hanging in
the air ]ust a few feet over the runway, and all these funny-looking people emerged from
underneath it and ]ust as they came out, a great giant Wand]ina spirit had stuck his head
and shoulders out of the craft and waved to them. Jimmy thought he was sending them
up the hill to fetch him out of the barn!
Even though Drew Knw Jimmy hadnt truly seen Avistar In !n Iun, the descrip-
tion seemed to fit him, and he wondered if Jimmy had somehow seen his astral form.
Nany aboriginal people had the gift of spiritual sight, so it wasnt that amazing really.
Especially in view of his own experiences! The Kimberley where Jimmy had been born
and raised was full of Wand]1na lore and depictions - vI) !aII, wnI!-/a, gns!I)
manIIK n!I!Is wI!n !Imnus spIII!uaI pwIs, an !n aDIII!) ! aus gIa! a!m-
spnII Is!uIDans, an - wno nad come 1rom Ine sRy1 Sometime, hed have to
check this out with Avistar! But now, thankfully, Jimmy was fine again, so Drew walked
back up to the house again with Bob.
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He glanced sideways at Bob, who was staring at him a bit oddly Look, Bob," he
said. Youre really going to have to !Ius! us on all this! !t was us that Jimmy saw this
morning, and the gIan! gns! he saw was the big guy who was with us during the
broadcast - Avistar! They brought us up out of the !nner Earth in V1mana - a /I)Ing-
sauI if you like! Thats where most of em come from! So they dropped us off here
before they went back home again inside the Earth!"
Bob stared at him hard again. Well, son!" he said. Youve never been a liar to Joan
or me, so ! guess !ll ]ust nav ! DIIv you - even if !nusans wuIn!! But not a
bloody word of any of this to the fellers, Drew! Fortunately, Charlie only !nugn! he
recognized you, but nobody believed him, so no harms done, eh! Glad to see you had the
sense to get rid of the face-fungus", by the way! That would have been a dead-set bloody
giveaway! You might tell Errol to do the sam, will you?" Now lets get inside and back to
normal again, eh?"
Drew glanced back at him. Just one last bit of business to finish off tonight, Bob,
and then were all done!" Drew told him. So if you or Joan hear us talking during the night
dont worry about it, IIgn!? Just turn over and go back to sleep. OK? Tell Joan the same,
and not to worry. After that, everybody will be shooting off Home, so youll soon have the
old place back to normal again. Naybe Errol might stick around a while, but ! think Chas
and the girlsll be heading off pretty smartly."
Then as they mounted the back steps up to the verandah, he added, Oh,Yair! And
! wouldnt hold my breath about Tn Nw WII ]ust yet awhile, either. !ts all going to
take a heckuvva long time to get sorted, so it might never happen in )uI time! So n!
swa! I!, Bob! Just relax now, and take it easy! ! mIgn! even be geII1ng n1Icned soon,
incidentally! You never know your luck in a big city, Bob!"
Bob stared hard at his foster-son. Hey, now! Your Num would be really vI !n
mn to hear InaI, son! Can ! give her the good news?"
But Drew shook his head. Give us a blooming break, Bob! ! havent even popped
!n qus!In yet!" Then he grinned. Youll D!n be the first to know!"
When they got back indoors, somebody had been down to the milk-churn mailbox
and fetched the daily Brisbane paper. As usual, the first and most important item on the
front page concerned the current test cricket series, but there was a smaller headline
relating to yesterdays Olympic Games Opening. The headline read:
OLYMPIC HOAX WORK OF BROADCAST HACKERS? {See page 3)
Drew turned to page three, and discovered a a rather blurry press photograph of
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one of the giant screens at the Athens Stadium, that showed the final shot of himself and
his companions looking Heavenward like a bunch of evangelists - although, on second
thought, the picture looked more like a still shot from an old ABBA music clip! Avistars
face was missing due to the picture having been cropped down to suit the five humans,
but his body could be seen behind them as a white blur. However, he did appear in full on
another, smaller picture, but as a rather indistinct ghostly shape. With the caption: AIIn
amDassaI7 WIII w D Inva /Im u!I spa7
The general drift of the accompanying copy was that the whole thing was believed
In //IIaI quaI!Is to be a piece of misguided hi-tech wizardry on the part of some
lunatic prankster-group, intent upon stirring up some sort of worldwide panic. various
world political and church leaders had dismissed the whole content of the Nessage" as
being the totally impractical and blasphemous ramblings of some deluded religio-political
crank, and should be regared as such.
However, there na been some demonstrations by extremist religious groups who
claimed this to be the beginning of the events described in the Biblical Apocalypse, and
who had offered immediate salvation to all who would confess Christ as their Saviour.
There had been scuffles with the police in various ma]or western cities between these
placard and cross-wielding groups and the police, but the overall effect on the greater
mass of the worlds public was as yet unclear. At least there had been no anti-Establish-
ment civil unrest worthy of note.
Drew realized that most people - like Bob and Joan - would still be stunned to a large
degree and trying to assimilate what they had seen on their video-tapes and to come to
grips with all the implications of the Nessage itself. There would probably be urgent
meetings going on right at this moment in places like the White House, No.10 Downing
Street, The Lodge at Canberra, and all the other great seats of ultmate national power
around the world, on how to cope with the inevitable outcry from the public which was
sure to follow, as night follows day. (xp! In na, / uIs1}
He guessed, as did Errol, that the effect of the Nessage would be much like that of
a giant meteor crashing into the Pacific. Beginning with a big remote splash, but soon
sending forth great ripples in all directions, which, by the time they struck the shores of
full public awareness would have become like tidal waves that could engulf the whole
world in a headlong flurry of alarm and panic. The worlds leaders would hardly be un-
aware of this tidal-wave effect", so it would be interesting to view the Tv Newscasts this
evening to watch them attempt, Canute-like, to stem the rising tidal-swell of public reac-
tion with a few banal utterances and airy waves of the hand! The world would really be
seeking reassurance that all would be well! But would the politicians give them any such
assurance? Or would they ]ust bury their heads in the sand, and simply dismiss the Nes-
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sage as so much bunk??
Somehow, they felt the great mass-awakening of public consciousness and aware-
ness would n! be pacified or diverted by any glib dismissal of the Nessage as the work of
technological Greenpeace-style cranks! He could almost hear their opening lines now!
M) FIIw AmIIans. M) DaI FIIw BII!ns. M) FIIw Aus!IaIIans. and so forth
around the world! Followed by a lot of meaningless platitudes, empty rhetoric and
ranting condemnations of this heinous attempt at global terrorism! One could be sure
that they would bend every effort toward turning the concept of saving the Earth from
their own gross mismanagement of it into some massive anarchical plot by some subver-
sive group of lunatic greenies!
They wondered when the approach would come from the Sages of Shamballah, and
what form it might take. Would it wind up as some inconclusive Camp David" type
meeting, or would it come in the form of an Extraordinary Neeting with the General
Assembly of the United Nations? Or might the Leading Heads of Government all be
spirited away overnight to face a direct confrontation with the Sages, and perhaps a
collective psychic-brainwashing by them, in their Shamballahan Audience Chamber? !n
the end, they abandoned their attempts to second-guess what might or might not hap-
pen.
Che Sara Sara, old buddy," said Errol finally, after Drew had tossed the paper aside
in disgust. Whatever will be WIII be! Though ! still personally believe our Big Shots will
make a total goddamn hash of it! Naybe Avistar might give us a clue tonight when he
comes to top up the Profs Knowledge Tank!"
! reckon Chas is going to have to grow another head to contain it all!" grinned
Drew, as the sub]ect of their remarks glanced up from his perusal of the Cattlemans
Gazette.
Whats that yere sayin aboot me, laddie?" asked Chas, a touch aggressively. Nothing
derogatory, dear old Prof!" smiled Errol. We were ]ust hoping that therell be room inside
your brain for all this extra intelligence youll be getting from old Quango Lopside to-
night..."
Queng Lobsang!" cried Chas, a tad irately. Yons a gae claiver auld feller, and itll
be nae small honour tae share his knowledge! Ah only wish Ah could hae done a better
]ob o transferring Nah ain intae )uI theck skulls!"
They both grinned self-consciously back at the professors retort. Then Drew no-
ticed that Narianne and Hazel had switched on the television. He glanced across at the
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fine old grandfather clock against the wall and saw that it was almost six pm! Almost time
for the evening News on at least two channels! They all gathered around to see what sort
of official reaction the various governments had come up with. As usual however, the first
item was the latest cricket score from the Nelbourne Cricket Club, and as usual the Auss-
ies were walking all over their opponents. !t would soon reach the point where they were
unplayable. But fortunately, it was only a highlight. Then suddenly the topic swung to the
Olympic Opening. After some flashes of all the usual olympic spectacle and razzamattazz,
the announcer finally got around to the Nessage. He said that apart from the curious
fleeting interference in the broadcast from Athens, everything had gone according to
schedule, from the march in of the many international athletic teams and the lighting of
the Olympic Flame, followed by all the usual speeches by various dignitaries of the !OC
and the host-countrys government, and a spectacular display of Greek pageantry, danc-
ing and fireworks.
However, millions of viewers who had recorded the evenings events were astounded
to discover that they had instead recorded a strange broadcast message, presented by
five humans and an alien giant, in which an astounding proposal had been presented to
the entire population of the world for the resuscitation or resurrection of its entire global
environment. This was put to some sort of psychic ballot the results of which had been
announced to be 79 for and 21 against in favour of its adoption and near-future
commencement. The race who were proposing this plan had also offered to do all the
work entirely at their own expense. All that was asked of the people of Earth was their
patience and cooperation.
Then the announcer went into other issues involved regarding accommodation of
the nations of the world whilst the work was in progress and afterwards. That the current
opressive, political and legalistic systems of national government would need to be scrapped
and an entirely new gaII!aIIan system set in its place. Noney would cease to be of any
use or value, since all human needs would be met and furnished free of charge ]ust as
God and Nature had intended. New moral values would be encouraged, together with
new dietary habits and healthy exercise. There would be no place in this proposed New
World for either politicians, wealthy business tycoons, or any other such elitist groups.
The only people who mattered were the ordinary men and women of the Earth.
He then went on to add that, whilst the actual governments of the world and their
leaders had n! as yet been contacted by these alleged and assumed fictitious aliens",
several renowned world leaders had already spoken out in ridicule of the entire concept as
an elaborate anarchist hoax, especially those of America and her allies, and US Govern-
ment security agencies were now searching for those who had perpetrated it. The US
President had delivered a particularly scathing speech against all who would dare to stand
against the treasured US values of democracy and free enterprise, and that already the
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FB! and the C!A were closing in upon the scent of the hoaxers, and that other Western
Nations were following Americas lead. The Australian Prime Ninister had announced that
AS!O had ]oined Americas C!A in the hunt, and the British PN had already alerted N! 10,
and the SAS were on standby. The Chinese Army was manning its national borders, as
was that of !ndia.
Thus far, however, second and third world leaders had not yet even spoken out
much less mobilized their security forces or put armies on alert. The attitude of all those
other and lesser nations who made up the large bulk of the worlds population, sseemed
to be one of waI!-an-s. !t seemed that those who had nothing to lose under such a
system, except their debt, their poverty and their lack of privilege in the world were
prepared to hear a little more about this intriguing proposal.
The rest of the news was largely taken up as usual with more sporting, finance and
weather forecasts. The Current Affairs shows routed out a few superannuated politicians
for their opinions - but still being elitists, en]oying wealthy retirements on cunningly-
invested Golden Handshakes", they had little to offer in support of the proposal even if it
wI true and fair dinkum - which of course, it wasnt!"
Bob ended the torment by leaping up and switching the Tv off, in a fit of anger.
Those bastards have all got theirs, so they dont give a rats arse!" he cried.
Later as they sat around the large farmhouse-style kitchen table in the big kitchen
en]oying a late but delicious and leisurely dinner, they discussed all the possible ramifica-
tions of the Sages new world, in which every nation would be a separate State in its own
cavern or dome-world, and how the natural world above might develop without any de-
facement and ruin by the works of humankind.
Drew discovered, much to his ]oy, that Bob had now begun to look at the whole
thing from the nsIva!In angI instead of worrying about making his living by exploit-
ing the animals that he currently sent off in truckloads to the slaughterhouse. He himself
had never been enamoured of the cattle industry, ever since, in his early boyhood, he had
raised a little orphaned calf up by hand-feeding it himself with a bottle. !t had been
literally his pet" pro]ect, and hed been encouraged in this by Joan. Bob however,
constantly reminded him that all young animals, no matter how appealing they might
appear, eventually grew up to be adults and then they ceased to lose their charm as pets.
!t was all one of Natures big con"-tricks!
However, Drew didnt believe that Ruffy, his pet calf, would ever get to any large
size. But the day inevitably came when the young steer began to knock him around a bit
when he played with it, and it finally had to go and ]oin a mob of other well-fed young
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steers in an enclosed paddock of their own. The great blow came one day when he rose
early and went to call Ruffy (wn s!III Ispn ! nIs aIIs}, but that morning the
paddock was empty. He knew nothing then about vaI being simply aI/-ma!! When he
asked around, one of the hands told him ]okingly that theyd all been taken off the evening
before to a nice place near the ocean for a ]olly holiday! Later he found out that the `nice
place was a sIaugn!Inus!
After that he heartily detested the whole cattle industry, and often deplored the fact
that he en]oyed T-bone and rump-steaks so much. !t was the same with pigs, and even
lamb, too! He was ridden by guilt, but it never stopped him from eating them! Now, with
this new proposal of the Sages, he would have a real Inn!Iv to break free of his disgust-
ing habit of eating the flesh of other innocent mammals.
After dinner was finished and the two young women gave Joan a well-deserved
hand at washing up the pots and pans, Bob sat and yarned a while with them about some
of their adventures. He was aghast at the idea of Hitler still being alive under the South
Pole, but then he got the feeling they were ]ust navIng a In / nIm and they simply
uIn! make him believe it really was fair-dinkum"! Even Chas, whose opinion Bob now
always respected, failed to convince him! He was still laughing heartily when he finally
stood up and said he was going to turn in early - hed had enough bloody fun for one day!
Then Joan and the girls came in, and noting Bob had already retired, she decided she too
would leave them all to unwind a bit.
Drew glanced at the clock and saw that it was now close to ten-thirty. He noticed
with a smile that the professor was now showing distinct signs of excitement! This re-
minded him that perhaps theyd better consider where they should hold the ritual of
Transference. The large, centrally-placed lounge room was a bit too open to sudden
interruption by Joan or the kids.
!n the end they all went into Drews room, which was in the remotest corner of the
sprawling household, and made a little more space available by shifting some of the
furniture around a little. By now it was well after eleven, and they could expect Avistar to
show up at any tick of the clock.
They sat on the edge of Drews bed and a couple of cane chairs in a state of growing
excitement as the clock on his dresser ticked slowly around to eleven-fifteen, and by now
Chas was almost beside himself with nervous tension. He suddenly sprang to his feet and
was about to start pacing the floor - when suddenly the room began to become charged
with an eerie atmosphere of powerful vibrating energy, then they saw the faint outline of
a tall figure beginning to form out of thin air. The height alone was sufficient to tell them
that it was Avistar, but as his shape slowly filled out and solidified, another form began to
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appear beside him! They hadnt expected !w visitants! But they hadnt long to wait
before his features filled in sufficiently for Drew and Errol to recognize the newcomer as
ung LDsang, the ancient Tibetan adept who was to donate a copy of his memory to
Chas!
But this was not the end of their surprise, for yet a third tall figure now started to fill
out beside the other two. !t formed much faster than the others and they saw to their
utter amazement that it was the astral of the Shamballahan spoksman Sage! Within
seconds they were all bowing and greeting each other politely, although Drew found it all
totally incongruous to be meeting such a venerable person in so a humble a place as his
bedroom. However, the Sage was not phased in any way by this.
Greetings and welcome to my humble abode, Eminence!" said Drew self-consciously.
we did not anticipate such a grand visitation!"
But the Sage simply smiled. !t is nothing, Drew." He said, We decided that it was
necessary for the donor to be present, and also a Sage to facilitate the transfer, and give
it our direct blessing. Though he possesses the vril strength to effect the actual transfer,
Avistar is not Agarthan by birth, so has not the power to bless and seal to make it perma-
nent. So ! am here to ensure that all is done properly. And now, if Charles is ready, We
shall begin the transfer!
Then followed a curious ritual involving various incantations from the Sage and
Avistar, both individually and separately. Then Avistars astral form stood between Chas
and Queng, a great shimmering ghostly hand upon the head of each, whilst the Sages
ghost stood behind him, chanting musically, his hands placed upon Avistars temples.
Avistar himself spoke out several incantations of his own in a forceful but spectral voice,
pressing down so hard upon the heads of both the sub]ects with his large hands that they
began to buckle at the knees.
This great effort continued for several moments until suddenly, there came a weird
flickering blur as of a great electrical charge running from the hand on Quengs head along
Avistars outstretched arms and into that upon Chass head. And all the time, the Sage
stood behing Avistar, still clasping his ghostly temples, and chanting incessantly. Then it
was suddenly over. Old Quengs astral form quivered and teetered uncertainly for a
moment and then recovered, but Chas ]ust crumpled to the carpeted floor with a great
sigh, and lay as one dead. As drew darted forward to pick Chas up, the Sage told him to
let him lie for a while. Fear not! He will soon recover when he is ready!" he said. His
mind is now rearranging itself."
Then he spoke with Drew about the success of their task. We are greatly pleased
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with the reaction of your people, but there is still much to do in bringing their leaders to
full acceptance of the situation. However, we have other options available to ensure their
final cooperation. But it would be far better if they could arrive at there own decision. We
have already spoken astrally with many of your United Nations people and they are now in
agreement with us, so it should not be long before the leaders of this worlds so-called
superpowers" agree to meet with us!"
Once the United Nations have spoken out to the people of your world, they will
have little choice - unless they wish to be branded as dictatorial and totalitarian. They
would then have the wrath of their own people to deal with, and would soon cease to be
superpowers. However, we are peaceloving people as you know and have abominate war
of any kind, much less IvII waI! When our proposal is finally accepted and put into effect,
all wars and terrorism will cease, together with inequality among men, as also will poverty,
famine and disease!"
Here he smiled at them all. So be of good cheer! All that we have proposed will
come to pass! And you, my friends, will all live to see it! Your lives have already been
extended by the vril, ]ust as was the life of Queng here!" Ah!" he said, looking down. !
see that Charles is now recovering!" Now you may help him to his feet, Drew!" As Drew
picked Chas up off the floor, the old professor groaned and clapped his hands to his
temples.
Nah puir heid!" he moaned, sitting on the edge of the bed. Et feels like mah
brains swelled tae twice ets size!" then suddenly his face brightened and he stood up
again. Guid Lord! Ah canna believe it! Nah minds all abuzz wi brand new thochts.What
the.!" He sat blinking owlishly up at the Sage and Queng. Ah dunno hoo tae thank
ye.A)1 Ah see noo! Thank ye, Queng! Ahll be glaid tae keep in touch wi ye, too!"
The Sage stepped across and laid his spectral hand across Chass forehead. We are
glad to have been of service to you, Charles!" he said. Now, go you forth and give many
the benefit of this new wisdom, ]ust as Queng has done! PIv ) !n FuII BIssIng /
!n TIInI!) / 5ags an IIv Ing1 As the Sage said this, Chas fell back unconscious
again, upon the bed, a beatific smile on his glowing pink face.
Then it was time for the three visitors to depart. But before they did so, the Sage
placed a hand upon both Drews and Errols heads and gave them the same blessing, as he
also do for Narianne and Hazel. They all felt quite dizzy and light-headed, but they
manged to remain conscious and standing. The Sage then told them that they were
greatly loved by the whole Edenan world who now knew of their exploits, and that if they
ever wished to revisit that inner World - or perhaps even take up their permanent abode
there, they had only to call upon Avistar. He would now maintain regular contact with
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them and would also keep them apprised of all developments in the great work ahead.
Who knows?" he added. You may even wish to become actively involved in its
development yourelves, once you have en]oyed a good rest and are happily married! We
would be happy and honoured to continue our association at a later date, if such were
your desire! We can only trust that you will consider this after your immediate plans have
been concluded! Avistar will always be available to pass on your wishes!"
Then he treated them all to a great benevolent smile. We will leave now - but feel
welcome to visit us at any time when you travel forth upon the astral plane! And now for
the present - Farewell, my good and trusted friends!"
The ancient and now beloved Sage bowed before them, as did Avistar and the
smiling Queng, who also bade them a fond farewell, and as the two couples bowed in
return, the three spirits inclined their chins upon their necks, crossed their arms over their
chests, and faded slowly from their view.
Drew had to sleep on the settee that night as Chas still snored his head off in Drews
bed right through the night. But when he awoke the professor was a changed man!
When he came out into the lounge room, he was surprised and then apologetic about
having pinched Drews bed. Then he told Drew that hed been lying thinking deeply for
the past hour or more about his future. With all the added data he now carried in his
mind, he no longer desired to return to Edinburgh to pursue his old mundane career in
Geophysics. He had an entirely nw mission in life, and until such time as the new world
was instituted he wished to become a guru"- and what better outlet could there possibly
be for his vast store of knowledge than the !nternet! Consequently, if Drew would be so
kind as to assist him, he would email his resignation forthwith from the University faculty,
and have them forward his sizeable superannuation payout to an Australian bank, prob-
ably somewhere nice and warm, such as tropical Cairns! This news delighted Drew, and
he said he felt sure that Bob and Joan would gladly put up with Chas until all this was
sorted out.
!n the meantime, Drew had news of his wn to impart! He had proposed marriage
to Narianne late last night, and she had happily accepted him - an - /uI!nImI - Errol
had done likewise with Hazel, and now they, too, were to be married! The details would
be decided today regarding a double wedding there in Queensland, following which he
and Narianne proposed a honeymoon in Canada, whilst Errol and Hazel were thinking of a
skiing holiday in New Zealands beautiful South !sland Alps! This way theyd both meet
their new wives families, too! However, Errol hinted at a subsequent trip Home to
Detroit, with his new bride, before they returned to take up their abode on the Tropical
Coast of Queensland! Theyd all stayed up until the wee hours making their wonderful
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plans. The ma]or item that remained was the location of the actual double-wedding itself!
Why not have it here?" said a soft voice from the lounge doorway.
They looked up to see Joan standing there, smiling blissfully down at them both.
She came into the room and gave Drew a great big hug and a kiss. God Bless you, love!"
she said. !m so very happy for you! - For you aII, in fact! !m sorry ! overheard you talking,
but ! was in the kitchen and was ]ust coming in to ask if you wanted a cup of tea! As for
you Charles, youre welcome to stay for as long as you like! Bob thinks the world of you,
so youd be a good influence on him!"
Then, as she turned back to the kitchen, she looked at Drew. Dont forget to ask
the others about having the wedding here! ! know a very nice vicar!"
And so it was. The wedding was a wonderful affair, with no expense spared and the
two brides parents flown over in private ]ets for the occasion from vancouver and Auck-
land. Chas took lessons from young Charlie and rapidly mastered the computer Drew
gave him. His voluminous website soon became the talk of the Web.
As for the two happy couples. The last advice to hand was that they were both living
happily in the Daintree region of Cape York, ]ust north of Cairns, where they were far from
the madness of the worlds still crowded cities and were surrounded instead by the calm,
peaceful magic of the North Queensland rainforest. Their beloved professor was not so
very far away either - nor was the brooding, mysterious plateau of Undara..
The End
@ GII) FIs!I 2UU2
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Gerry Forster, author of Under Down Under
Gerry Forster - About Me!
Theres not a lot to tell you regarding my background, except to say I was born and raised in Britain, midway between the two
major world wars, and educated to grammar-school level. My working-career began during the Nazi Blitzkrieg years, as an
apprentice engineering draftsman. I really wanted to be an artist, but Dad didnt see it my way. He felt that all artists were
effeminate pansies! In those days, draftsmen learned about machinery the hard way by getting their hands filthy and coming
to grips with engineering design on the factory floor. I only used a drawing-board at night-school, four nights a week, in
between Nazi air-raids.
However, the exigencies of war, and looming military service disrupted all that, and it wasnt until the war ended that
I found myself free at last to choose my own career and order my own life-interests. My artistic life began as a storyboard-artist
in an animation studio, where I was fortunate to be tutored by one of Disneys top creative story-men, Ralph Wright. The whole
studio was supervised by David D. Hand, who had directed such great box-office hits as Snow White and Bambi. Several
key Disney chiefs were then on-loan to the Rank Organization, to help get a British cartoon-film industry going. Sadly, the
studio folded, but at least Id been introduced to the creative world. After that I pursued my artistic leanings in several
commercial fields, including technical-illustration - thanks to my wartime draftsman-training which has many times stood me
in excellent stead! But my real career in art began when, together with my beloved wife and three children, I migrated to
Australia in the early 1950s. Before long I had my own commercial art studio, and even managed to find time to hone my skills
as a fine-artist in oils and water-color.
However, along the way, I also rediscovered one of my boyhood passions for books on the ancient past. When I was
a youngster, I read several books in school that were to fire my imagination for life! Conan Doyles The Lost World was one
of them, as well as Jules Vernes Journey To The Center of The Earth. On my forays into the local public library, I
discovered Rider Haggards fascinating books about the adventures of Allan Quatermain and friends. They were full of
wonderful verbal images of lost cities and ancient hidden civilizations, and who could forget She! Around that time, I also
began reading Rice Burroughs, and found his Pellucidar stories of the Inner Earth utterly absorbing. In fact most of my free
time as a growing youth were spent with my nose buried in such books, while my pals were outdoors playing sport and other
such healthy pursuits!
But it wasnt until my mid-years - when I discovered religion and spirituality - that I really awoke to the possiblility that
these fantasies might possess a grain of truth in them. As a new overnight-convert to Christianity, I suddenly became aware
that there is much more to this world and universe, than we can ever sense with our normal faculties. It was then, when Id
become seriously imbued with the notion of an invisible Otherworld, that I began considering alternative planes of existence,
physical and spiritual. I found myself trying with my inner mind, to probe into realms of existence that lie far beyond our normal
physical or mental reach. I had always been an outspoken skeptic of anything psychic till then, but one cannot embrace a
theistic religion without acknowledging the existence of a spiritual aspect to oneself and thus of the entire universe. This was
my turning-point, and after that, I began to look at the world and its tremendously mysterious past through newly-opened,
inner eyes.
It soon dawned on me that much of the knowledge Id gained via a normal orthodox education was purely secular,
and that it was founded on theoretical preconceptions. These notions and ideologies had been passed down unquestioned
through so many generations that they had first become traditions, and then, by constant repetition and blind acceptance,
had evolved into facts. To my horror, I realized that even the religion that had roused my spirit from its torpor was also
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traditional and thus possibly false! But I had to draw the line somewhere, so I decided to cling, if not to the letter of my new
belief, at least to the Spirit.
Being convinced that our universe was designed by a Super Intellect, and is not the result of blind chance, Im still
comfortable in that belief. Although this amazing new revelation came to me later in life, I had been mentally prepared from my
youth to accept the wonderful possibilities I now gladly embrace. When I was a young man, I read many learned tomes on
scientific things such as astronomy, archaeology, ancient history, Darwinian evolution and geology. I had also read whatever
ancient classics I could get my head around. I guess that, In my youthful arrogance, I thought I knew everything worth
knowing!
I recall how, in my mid-twenties, I wrote a series of articles on astronomy for a magazine, blithely expounding
the then undisputed theory of how the stars and the solar system were formed. With neatly-drawn diagrams and
illustrations, I confidently explained the formation of the Solar System from a cigar-shaped extrusion of matter drawn
out of the Sun by a closely passing star. And, likewise, the composition of the Earth, from its nickel-iron core outward,
and how a near-miss by a giant meteor had torn out a great chunk of the Earths still-semi-molten crust to eventually
create our Moon, leaving a great depression to fill with water and become the Pacific Ocean. I pointed out the volcanic
Ring of Fire around the Pacific as undeniable proof of this occurrence. Today, of course, I regard it to be more
possibly the residual proof of the catastrophe that overtook James Churchwards ancient continent of Mu, when the
subterranean gas-chambers blasted out their contents and collapsed, causing that fabulous continent to subside beneath
the waves.
So there, friends, you have my motivation for writing these articles. I dont profess to have the full answers to
any of the mysteries Ive explored, but I do try to offer alternatives to some of the currently-accepted theories. (Which
orthodox science still persists in ramming into the minds of children as concrete facts.) My objectives are simple. Im
trying to get people to think for themselves; to formulate hypotheses and theories of their own, and to make them
known. By studying the ideas of others, whether trained in science or simply employing intuitive common sense, we, or
those who follow us, will surely one day discover the truth of many of these baffling mysteries.
For your guidance and understanding - whether you think me a crank or a misguided fool, I care little - here are
some of the tenets of my personal belief-system. I believe that a Creative Intellect whom many call God does exist, and
that He is responsible for all the Universe(s). I believe that Atlantis existed. I believe that Mu existed. I believe that
there was once (and may still be) humanoid and other familiar life-forms on the planet, Mars, and upon (or within) other
planets, too. I also believe that all the planets may eventually prove to be hollow, and contain developed life upon their
inner surfaces. I believe, too, that there have been many other ancient civilizations on Earth than we can even begin to
imagine. And that they possessed ancient, highly-developed, but far less cumbersome technologies, far beyond our
modern comprehension! I firmly believe, that the poles have not always been frozen, but were once homes to abundant
and luxurient life! These are just a few of my deep inner convictions - as will become more apparent as my articles
continue!
However, with Agent Mulder of X-Files fame, I believe not only that The Truth Is Out There! but that its
also In Here! Inside our Hollow Earth, our hearts and our minds. All we have to do is to find it and dig it out! I
wish you all Good Hunting and Good Digging!
Sincerely yours,
Gerry Forster Gerry Forster, 2001
Gerry Forster
PNPfB
PPWN
PNPfB
693
CONTENTS
Authors Note.
Whilst the fictional scenario for this astounding adventure story plunges vertically beneath Queensland, the author
wishes to acknowledge and recognize the exciting real-life environmental adventures conducted by Under Down
Under-Tasmanian Adventure Tours in the island State of Tasmania, that uniquely rugged and beautiful wilderness,
latitudinally situated below the east Australian mainland.
CONTENTS
UNDARA
CONTENTS
Chas, Drew & Errol
696
CONTENTS
UNDER DOWN UNDER POSTER IN DEVELOPMENT
AVAILABLE SUMMER 2002
697
CONTENTS
ONELIGHT.COM
http://onelight.com/
698
CONTENTS
http://seekers.100megs6.com/
SEEKERS

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