the object drew closer, Anderson turned on the outside flood lamps. McHugh and Robison reclined on the mats that served as cushions and looked out the forward portholes.
What they saw was a smooth, almost polished black curved surface that extended to the limits of illumination, as far as the eye could see. Anderson steered the Squid on a path that first ran along the edge of the object, it was like walking along a curved wall of black glass. He then steered the Squid up and over the object, again nothing but the same black glassy surface. There were no cracks, no seams, no doors, no windows, nothing. Walt conducted temperature, current, salinity, background radiation, and sonar tests - nothing.
The Squid stood off of the object and tried to measure changes in or fall off from any of the readings - nothing. Only the metastable helium magnetometer showed any indication of the presence of the object, the readings correlated with the earlier surface and over-flight data. Anderson and Carver used the depth sounding sonar to construct a profile of the object. The shape was that of a gigantic oval object, no seams, no bumps, no doors, no windows, no anything.
"Damn, that thing is just not real. Nothing real could be that smooth," exclaimed a mystified McHugh.
"You know what you said topside, Bob?" said Robison.
"Yeah?"
"I think we're in deep shit," replied Robison.
Using the strobe lights and television camera, Robison took multiple shots of the smooth, grayish-black curved structure, the size of a football field. The height of the object was about fifty feet from the silt bottom; there was no way to determine how deep the object sat in the silt. Bathymetric readings from the USS Marysville suggested that the object sat in the center of what might have been an impact crater but the centuries had softened even that conclusion.
The time went too quickly, and soon Carver announced that they had overstayed their welcome and would have to leave. Anderson dumped his ballast and the Squid began its upward spiral home.
The R/V Falling Star stayed on station for about a week and multiple visits were made to the mysterious object. Eventually, Mike was also given a chance to see the mysterious object first hand. The profound impact of this perfectly smooth massive object lying on the ocean bottom would send shock waves through the intelligence establishment. Unfortunately for Sevson and Robison, their scientific reports were cloaked in the highest levels of secrecy and would never be published. However, both Sevson and Robison asked for and got funding to conduct similar research in non sensitive regions thereby giving them cover for reporting on these tremendous engineering advances in ocean exploration. The curtain of state secrets fell quickly on the mysterious object in the Hatteras Abyssal Plain. Mike and McHugh continued to work on the project from their offices in Port Hueneme.
1000 Hours: Monday, September 16, 1969: Port Hueneme, California
"Come in, Mike," said McHugh.
Mike entered McHugh's office. With McHugh were two men dressed in civilian suits. The three seemed to have been engaged in discussion about something but ceased when Mike knocked on McHugh's door. The three men were seated, McHugh behind his desk and his two visitors on the side chairs.
"Have a seat, Mike," said McHugh. "These two men are from Naval Intelligence. They would like to talk to us. Seems we blundered into something much bigger than we thought. Mike, this is Commander Richard Thompson and Lieutenant Robert Cohen. Gentlemen, Lieutenant Mike Liu."
"Mister Liu," spoke the older of the two. "The object located on the Hatteras Abyssal Plain, appears to be one of several located around the continental United States. After your work with Commander McHugh, we went back to our magnetometer surveys and found the same anomaly in three other locations, they escaped detection simply because their
What they saw was a smooth, almost polished black curved surface that extended to the limits of illumination, as far as the eye could see. Anderson steered the Squid on a path that first ran along the edge of the object, it was like walking along a curved wall of black glass. He then steered the Squid up and over the object, again nothing but the same black glassy surface. There were no cracks, no seams, no doors, no windows, nothing. Walt conducted temperature, current, salinity, background radiation, and sonar tests - nothing.
The Squid stood off of the object and tried to measure changes in or fall off from any of the readings - nothing. Only the metastable helium magnetometer showed any indication of the presence of the object, the readings correlated with the earlier surface and over-flight data. Anderson and Carver used the depth sounding sonar to construct a profile of the object. The shape was that of a gigantic oval object, no seams, no bumps, no doors, no windows, no anything.
"Damn, that thing is just not real. Nothing real could be that smooth," exclaimed a mystified McHugh.
"You know what you said topside, Bob?" said Robison.
"Yeah?"
"I think we're in deep shit," replied Robison.
Using the strobe lights and television camera, Robison took multiple shots of the smooth, grayish-black curved structure, the size of a football field. The height of the object was about fifty feet from the silt bottom; there was no way to determine how deep the object sat in the silt. Bathymetric readings from the USS Marysville suggested that the object sat in the center of what might have been an impact crater but the centuries had softened even that conclusion.
The time went too quickly, and soon Carver announced that they had overstayed their welcome and would have to leave. Anderson dumped his ballast and the Squid began its upward spiral home.
The R/V Falling Star stayed on station for about a week and multiple visits were made to the mysterious object. Eventually, Mike was also given a chance to see the mysterious object first hand. The profound impact of this perfectly smooth massive object lying on the ocean bottom would send shock waves through the intelligence establishment. Unfortunately for Sevson and Robison, their scientific reports were cloaked in the highest levels of secrecy and would never be published. However, both Sevson and Robison asked for and got funding to conduct similar research in non sensitive regions thereby giving them cover for reporting on these tremendous engineering advances in ocean exploration. The curtain of state secrets fell quickly on the mysterious object in the Hatteras Abyssal Plain. Mike and McHugh continued to work on the project from their offices in Port Hueneme.
1000 Hours: Monday, September 16, 1969: Port Hueneme, California
"Come in, Mike," said McHugh.
Mike entered McHugh's office. With McHugh were two men dressed in civilian suits. The three seemed to have been engaged in discussion about something but ceased when Mike knocked on McHugh's door. The three men were seated, McHugh behind his desk and his two visitors on the side chairs.
"Have a seat, Mike," said McHugh. "These two men are from Naval Intelligence. They would like to talk to us. Seems we blundered into something much bigger than we thought. Mike, this is Commander Richard Thompson and Lieutenant Robert Cohen. Gentlemen, Lieutenant Mike Liu."
"Mister Liu," spoke the older of the two. "The object located on the Hatteras Abyssal Plain, appears to be one of several located around the continental United States. After your work with Commander McHugh, we went back to our magnetometer surveys and found the same anomaly in three other locations, they escaped detection simply because their
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