The Testament in Stone

by Anthony Chalmers

​Dawes sat before the field telephone switchboard, waiting for the next report to come in. As he waited, he watched the last group of hired laborers make the three-hour journey back to their homes. The early-afternoon heat was only somewhat abated by the shadow cast onto the communications tent by an oblique outcrop of rock. At the base of the outcrop was a hole in the ground - a hole into which seven men had entered today, joining two others that had entered yesterday. For the next five days Dawes would be alone waiting for them to re-emerge. His vigil would be solitary thanks to the expedition's shoestring budget, which did not allow for one iota more than the bare minimum in terms of personnel,or equipment for that matter.

​He stood up to stretch his legs and looked over the encampment. For a week the camp had been home to the ten members of the expedition and to twice as many laborers, hired from the nearest village. Now the camp was silent and still, lying quietly in the midst of a wide scrubland plateauin northeastern Paraguay. It was neither desert, nor forest. Just mile after mile populated only by irregular patches of low brush, small dry gullies,and the occasional rock outcropping. There were no significant landmarkswithin sight of the camp.

​But the location of the camp was indeed significant, for a mile below his feet lay a massive subterranean network of caves and tunnels, unlike any known formation currently to be found in geology textbooks. Initially,it had been tentatively identified as a karst topography by last year's expedition, although it was far deeper than most such geological formations and had other characteristics which made it difficult to classify. Fortunately, it was much drier too. Entering karst formations was almost always through active sinkholes and amounted to rappelling down a waterfall. Naturally this limited the amounts, and types, of equipment that explorers could use. Not at all a suitable environment for the batterieswhich made the expedition possible. Fortunately, the sinkhole that led to the depths of this location had been dried up for ages.

​To pass the time, Dawes thumbed through one of the few reference texts that formed part of the expedition's stock of material. It had been brought along, mainly to resolve the many disputes that the leaders, professors Irvine and Grace, engaged in. The textbook contained a fold-out map which indicated locations of geologic formations, including karsts, that contained networks of subterranean caves and tunnels. While these sorts of rock formations are extremely common elsewhere on the planet, they are strangely rare in South America, with the only sizeable formation being this one that straddled the border between Paraguay andBrazil.

​Last year's expedition had located the site and descended the sinkhole, but they had not been prepared for its extreme depth, nor for the abundance of caves and tunnels which they encountered. Consequently,only a few dozen yards from the base of the sinkhole's chute were explored and mapped. Nonetheless, evidence was obtained of asubterranean ecological system far more complex than was previously thought to be possible in such cold darkness. A sampling of specimens of albino ants, insects and crustaceans, blind salamanders, and eel-like fish, such as typically found in such habitats, were collected last year. However, the variety and size distribution of the specimens suggested that many discoveries awaited this year's expedition. Furthermore, preliminary observations were made of hydraulic and geologic formations that might be unknown to science.

​This year's expedition was outfitted to spend five days exploring the course of the stream flowing through the cavern at the base of the sinkhole in both the upstream and downstream directions. The expedition's members, along with the hired locals, had labored for almost a week to build a series of platforms within the sinkhole, connected by cable elevators. Once completed, the apparatus was tested thoroughly by Dawes, Peters, and Jamison, the expedition's engineers. The latter two completed the descent yesterday and had set up a base camp at the foot of the shaft, where they would pass the night.

​The ferrying of men and equipment down the shaft - five hours at a time - began at dawn. Irvine's team was first to descend, followed an hour later by Grace's. Irvine called in the first report, just before noon.

​"Dawes, this is really quite incredible. There's an impressive landscape of stalactites, stalagmites, and limestone columns at the edges of the cave. Beyond the illumination of our lanterns, I can see colonies of glow-worms on the cavern ceiling, giving off an aura of pale blueish light. It's a shame you won't be able to see this for yourself, Dawes."

​About an hour later, as expected, Irvine communicated that Graceand his team had made it to the bottom safely. Irvine commented to Dawesthat despite his name, Grace was anything but graceful.

​

​"His awkwardness aboard the crowded descent platform almost led to the jettisoning of a load of batteries. Windsor managed to secure the load just in time and avert disaster. We would have had to cut our explorations by a day if we had lost that cargo. To be sure, our expedition would not have been possible without these splendid Edison cells, and of course the new electric winches. I recall you saying that much of our equipmentwould not have been available ten or even five years ago. It saddens me that while we are making such scientific and technical progress, mankindseems to be concurrently reverting to the horrors of that terrible time hardly two decades ago. Do we forget so soon? Have we learned nothing?"

​No, we haven't, thought Dawes. There will be another great war in Europe, the gears are already turning. But this one will be different, he mused. Twenty-five years ago, the dominoes fell in Europe, set in motionby a web of ill-conceived alliances, nothing more. Now, there is something different, more sinister going on in Europe. For one thing, those Nazis have been racing all over the globe, conducting peculiar archeological and scientific expeditions; the University's teams have crossed paths with them more than once.

​Dawes reflected on the several unpleasant exchanges he had personally experienced - really more like confrontations - with expeditionary groups either funded, or actually staffed by the Nazi regime. Their motivations were inscrutable to him, for their explorations followedseemingly random trajectories. Moreover, they did not publish their findings in any scientific journals, at least none that he was aware of. Coincidentally, at present they seem to be particularly interested in the dense scattering of karst formations in southeastern Europe, between the Adriatic and the Black Sea. In fact, Grace and Irvine tried to use this to their advantage when they begged - unsuccessfully - for supplementary funding from the University's governors.

​To further occupy himself, Dawes looked over the expedition's timetable for the day. The two teams, each consisting of one professor and two graduate students - would be collecting their gear now and loading it onto the boats. The expedition's flat-bottomed boats were custom-made out of aluminum sheets in the University's engineering workshop. They were designed for a draft of only a few inches and were as small as possible for a crew of three and their equipment, in order to safely navigate tight twists and turns in the watercourse. Each of the expedition's three boats was equipped with a small outboard motor, a tiny tank of fuel, and an 8-foot setting pole which could be used to keep the boat away from obstacles or to push the boat upstream if necessary.

​Surely enough, about an hour later, Dawes received a call from Jamison, informing him that the two teams had set off in their allotteddirections, Grace's upstream and Irvine's downstream. Jamison confirmed that both crews seemed to be handling the laying of telephone wire from the boats with relative ease. After Jamison ended the call, Dawes readied the wire cylinder and verified that the telegraphone was in working orderfor recoding the reports that were to follow.

​It was not surprising that the first field report came from Irvine. Since his boat was travelling downstream, they did not have to fight the current, and so would cover far more distance than Grace's team. Dawes began recording as Irvine made his report.

​"We have made our first landing and set up camp, about three hundred yards by our reckoning. There's a cave here of about a dozen yards in diameter - Windsor spotted a likely landing-spot, a sheet of gently sloping sandstone about ten feet across." As he listened, Dawes made brief notes in his logbook about the topics and the time of communication.

​Irvine continued, raising his voice slightly. "Now Dawes, make sure you are recording this. We observed at least two dozen dry tunnels connecting to the one we are following. Windsor has plotted their locations on our map. They are quite large, some over 10 yards across. Wemanaged to pull the boat up to a few where the access was safe enough and Evans could steady us. Our observations leave us dumfounded. Thetunnels seem to defy the predictable patterns of formation. Their directions are don't make sense, at least from a hydrological point of view. And more significantly, there are no discernable erosion patterns in the tunnels. It is as if the tunnels were formed as a whole, and not by stages as would be the case with water infiltration."

​Dawes threw a glance at the recording apparatus, as Irvine continued.

​"Windsor has suggested that strong airflow may have smoothed the tunnels over many millennia. By Jove man, there is stuff for decades of research here! We will now begin a detailed survey of our surroundings.There are two other tunnels, quite large, opening into the cave, and easily accessible. Evans and Windsor will explore them. I will examine the cave itself. Expect our next report in two hours, as scheduled."

​Not three-quarters of an hour later, Professor Grace called in.

​"We made a landing, maybe two-hundred yards upstream of base camp. The outboard motor has propelled us admirably. We were able to maintain a fair speed, somewhat above walking pace, suitable for observations." Grace concluded his communication with observations about the rock formations, similar to those reported by Irvine.

​In the intervals between the communications from the exploration teams, Dawes verified that the recordings were faithfully reproducing the reports. And indeed, they were. The decision to make use of audio recorders to chronicle the expedition's telephone communications was made in view of the hazards of navigating uncharted subterranean streams, which carried an elevated the risk of losing equipment, including journals,should a boat take on water, or worse. Upon listening to the reports for a second time, Dawes remarked to himself that voice recordings also gave an immediacy and impact to the communications that written journal entries simply could not provide.

​Dawes was startled out of his thoughts by the ringing emanating from the switchboard. A light on the console indicated that Irvine was on the line. Odd, thought Dawes, it is an hour before his appointed time to report. Dawes recorded the time in the logbook with one hand and grabbed the handset with the other. Irvine's agitated voice came in loud and clear.

​"Dawes! Windsor and Evans have gone missing. We agreed they would explore the tunnels for no more than thirty minutes and then return to make a report. I waited close to three-quarters of an hour and then began calling down the tunnels, to no avail. It has been a full hour since they went off. I ventured down the tunnels for a couple of dozen meters -no sign of either of them. We must alert the others and form a search party!"

​Dawes signalled his assent to Irvine and made a switchboard connection to base camp. He quickly informed Jamison of the situation, and then switched to Grace's connection on the console. The line rang and rang, a dozen times, and more. No answer. Dawes waited an anxiety-ridden minute, then rang Grace's line again. Still no answer. Another painful minute followed by another attempt at contacting Grace proved equally fruitless.

​Closing his eyes, Dawes mentally reviewed the expedition's protocol for emergencies. It was clear - the decision was his: he could send Jamisonand Peters upstream to contact Grace's group or downstream to assist Irvine in searching for Evans and Windsor. Looking across the flat landscape, Dawes paused for a moment's reflection. Given that there was no contact at all with Grace, he felt obliged to order the men at base camp upstream. Three men missing versus two. It could be as simple as a problem with the field telephone system, but they had to be sure. He would place a quick call to Irvine to inform him of the situation, and ask him to hold fast to his position, and then call base camp with instructions to travel upstream in the third boat to make contact with Grace.

​His deliberations were interrupted by an incoming call. Dawes' hopes vaulted at the idea that Grace was calling with some excuse as to why there was no answer to the three attempts at contacting him. But no, the call came from base camp. It was Peters.

​"Dawes, we have a problem. Moloney has just staggered into camp. He is agitated and soaking wet. He must have waded or swam downstream to make it back. We saw the bobbing light of his headlamp and heard his screaming a few minutes ago. We have him in a cot under blankets right now. He is raving uncontrollably. We can't get anything coherent out of him, certainly nothing about Grace and Gibson. He doesn't appear to have any injuries other than a few minor cuts, scrapes, and bruises, probably from his flight downstream. What are your instructions?"

​Dawes sat back. Now there were two men missing at each end of the stream, hours apart. He weighed his options carefully. At least Irvine's boat was still secure with its supply of fuel. He had to consider the worst case, that Grace's boat had to be counted as lost, along with its gasoline tank. There, the die was cast. He would order Jamison and Petersdownstream to rendezvous with Irvine. If they were able to find Evans and Windsor, those two could be left to pole upstream back to the camp - they were young and fit enough to manage it better than any of the oldermembers of the expedition.

​Only the question of what to do with Moloney remained. To leave him alone at base camp would be to court misadventure. In his state he might wander off or do harm to himself. Why, he might even try to return to the surface, wasting previous battery power. Sending him along with Peters and Morley seemed to be a safer option. And if he recovered sufficiently to aid in the search for Evans and Windsor, all the better. Dawes communicated his orders to Peters. After ending his call with Peters, Dawes informed Irvine of the situation and his plan.

​Less than an hour later Dawes received a call from Irvine. "Peters and Jamison have arrived. Good heavens, what could have happened to Grace and Windsor that has shaken Moloney to such a degree? According to Peters and Jamison, he is calmer now than when he arrived at base camp. He still does not respond coherently to questions, but can be counted on to follow instructions, I think. However, he cannot be left alone, and will no doubt prove useless if physical effort is required, so splitting up into two equal groups is out of the question. We will all venture into the larger of the two tunnels searching for Windsor first. Jamison will carry one of the small spools of telephone wire. Expect a report from us within the hour."

​Dawes wished Irvine Godspeed, and hung up. He then busied himself with checking the telephone battery, switchboard, and recorder to occupy his mind. Nonetheless, the wait proved too much for his nerves, so Dawes went about the camp doing an impromptu inventory and made a mental list of equipment that could be used for a rescue operation, should the need arise.

​They had brought along a basic medical kit, which was already down at base camp, along with the bare essential first aid packs carried by each team. In case of tunnel collapse, they had an assortment of pry bars and pickaxes. There were also the tools used to install the cable elevators and platforms, but it is unlikely they would prove useful. Stored carefully, apart from the rest of the equipment, there was a crate of dynamite and a set of blasting caps, brought along in anticipation of obstructions in the elevator construction. Dawes would not dream of using it in the close confines of the subterranean tunnels except in the most dire of circumstances. Several axes and a chainsaw for cutting wood into support beams rounded out the stock of tools, but the lack of suitable trees in the vicinity rendered them quite useless.

​A strident ringing made Dawes spring into action. Her ran across the short space that separated the supply tent from the communications tent and grabbed at the field telephone handset. It was Irvine.

​"Dawes! We've found Windsor! He's alive and well - at least physically. As we ventured down the tunnel, we came across countless side-tunnels. The terrain here is a veritable termite's nest of tunnels. More tunnel than stone I'd venture to say. Fortunately, Windsor blazed a trail with his rock pick making it easy enough to follow him. The sandstone around here is easy to scar."

​Dawes noticed that Irvine paused for a moment before continuing.

​"Strangest thing though, Dawes, this is the first dry tunnel that we have explored and it's really very remarkable. The walls are quite smooth. We have crossed several caverns, all at the junction of tunnels. The caverns are dry, and like the tunnels their surfaces are smooth, at least compared to the rock surfaces in the tunnels formed by the stream. There are no stalactites, stalagmites, columns, or other features. No water infiltration at all. If we weren't in this dreadful predicament, we would be able to collect evidence for years of further study."

​Irvine's narrative then became brisk.

​"Now when we were about three hundred yards in, the blazes ceased. We found ourselves in a cave about twenty yards across, and with fourtunnels exiting. No way of telling which way Windsor went. Morley suggested that we cease calling out Windsor's name and that we switch off our lanterns. We stood for a moment in darkness and silence. At first, we saw nothing other than the pale blue haze of the numerous glow-worm colonies. But as our eyes got accustomed to the darkness, we detected a faint yellowish tinge emanating from one of the four tunnels. We made our way down that tunnel and not fifty yards further we found Windsor in the strangest circumstances. He was sitting cross legged, with his back to us, against the wall of another cave of roughly the same dimensions as the previous one."

​It seemed to Dawes that Irvine's voice faltered a bit before continuing.

​"He's in some kind of stupor, for when Peters grabbed him and called out his name, Windsor barely responded. He seems well enough physically. Peters and Jamison have been trying to question him for the last few minutes while I connected the field telephone. We are going to turn back and search for Evans now... half a moment... Windsor is saying something about 'reading the wall'. Hang on Dawes."

​Half a minute passed before Irvine came back on the line.

​"Dawes! You won't believe this! There are markings of some sort on the wall, too irregular to be due to erosion. Besides, there is no evidence of water infiltration in the cave."

​At this point Irvines' voice became more animated.

​"Our preparations to exit the cave acted almost as a trigger for Windsor to snap out of whatever stupor he was in. He's starting to talk more lucidly now, and claims that the markings are in fact carvings made by creatures who dwell in the caves! He just said something to the effect that they are not meant to seen, rather they are meant to be felt! This is really quite outlandish. Windsor insists that we attempt to read the markings...with our hands."

​Dawes heard an animated discussion coming from the other end of the telephone line. He strained to catch Irvine's voice above those of the others.

​"Very well then, scientific curiosity has gotten the better of us. We will take no more than five minutes to study the carvings. Place yourselves along the base of wall. Dawes, are recording this? Good. Even Moloney seems well enough to participate."

​Dawes strained to hear the words being exchanged among group. He could not make out anything for a few moments. Then Irvine's voice came across the line, speaking directly to Dawes.

​"Odd! It's true what Windsor claims - the carvings make sense if one runs one's hands along them, it's a sort of Braille but with images. Windsor says the carvings are easier to interpret if we close our eyes. I suppose it serves to heighten our sense of touch. The carvings - bas-reliefs actually -are extremely shallow - very difficult to make out. They don't seem to follow any comprehensible order. They're not arranged horizontally or vertically, not linear in any way."

​Dawes' meticulous, technically oriented mind was not prepared for the incredible, fantastical images that arose as he struggled to conceive the scene in the cave. He began to hear snippets of the statements made by the men in the cave, transmitting over the telephone line. Most were loud enough to be made out by Dawes. He imagined that Irvine must have placed the telephone handset on the cavern floor, perhaps at a point near the center of the cave. What followed made Dawes think of a radio show, with actors using their voices to lend character to their statements. As he listened, in his already-reeling mind he perceived it as a script.

Irvine - in awe: "Good heavens! I believe creatures of every epoch of Earth's ages are depicted here - insects, dinosaurs, men, birds, reptiles, everything."

Peters - hesitatingly: "There's a labyrinth of tunnels extending throughout Earth. It's virtually hollow, at least that's the sense I get from the carvings."

Windsor - calm and even: "This planet is suitable to their needs for a home."

Irvine - irritated: "What do you mean, Windsor? Suitable for whom?"

Moloney - flat, barely audible: "They are formless, featureless - of immense size."

Irvine - whispering: "Yes, I see, the carvings depict some sort of creaturesshown to be in the tunnels - slug-like or like whales - I can't make it out."

Jamison - unevenly: "The tunnels are ... for their nests ... to rear their young."

Irvine - perplexed: "It's odd is that though the creatures of Earth were depicted here well enough for us to recognize them, these other beings are nothing like representations of the gods of primitive men, if that is what they are."

Jamison - chiming in: "They're not like the animal-headed Egyptian deities, or their opposites, the Mesopotamian gods with human heads and animal bodies. They are not even comparable to the fantastic Mesoamerican or antipodean deities."

Moloney - screaming: "You fools, at least all those have something akin to FACES!"

Peters - incredulously: "The tunnels extend through all levels of the earth, the crust, the mantle, even the core it seems. They are seemingly oblivious to temperature."

Moloney, shaken, almost yelling: "Their appetite is monstrous - they devour the very living layers of planets."

Windsor - almost chanting: "Slumbering for eons in their tunnels even as Earth was in geologic upheaval."

Jamison - slowly: "There are others too, smaller, a mass of appendages, tentacles."

Windsor - in a monotonous drone: "They are the companions; they bear witness and record."

Irvine - offended: "What? On what do you base that? Come, man, explain yourself!"

Windsor - continues droning: "They ride the currents of the intergalactic vastness of space and time."

Moloney - screeching: "I have seen them, the companions dancing madly before them."

Windsor - matter of factly: "That is how they venerate."

At this point, the dialogue began to merge into an incoherent jumble of voices, some shouting, even an occasional scream, all interspersed with irregular moments of silence. Minutes later, Irvine's voice rose above the others.

Irvine - angrily: "Enough! Enough I say! Quiet, all of you. Come to your senses! It is time we went after Evans!"

​With that, the dialogue came to an end. Irvine spoke directly toDawes now. His words out words came haltingly, seemingly spoken with great effort. "That's done with. We are...we are going after Evans now. Reporting in an hour." He did not wait for a reply from Dawes.

​Dawes' mind was reeling. The questions raised by the revelations competed with their hideous implications. It took him minutes to bring his thoughts under control. Who were these creatures? Why had no trace of their existence ever been found by any paleontological or archeological expedition? How did they tunnel into rock on such a vast scale? How did they remain unchanged over the eons, if indeed they existed for so long? Travelling through space? Impossible! How did these so-called 'companions' create the relief sculptures? Clearly that would indicate a high level of intelligence.

​This was too much for Dawes to ponder all at once. He found himself perspiring much more so than usual, a cold sweat as it were. After lighting a cigarette, he got up and paced about frantically. A few moments later he resolved to brew himself a coffee to settle his nerves. He would have an hour to master his thoughts.

​He had barely begun the ritual of brewing a pot of coffee when a ringing emanated from the communications tent interrupted him. Although the call came from Irvine's line, Dawes was surprised, though not in the way he would have expected, to hear Grace on the line.

​"Dawes, we have good news. Very good news. The party is reunited - everyone is well. Everything has come to a successful conclusion. We are returning the camp at base. You must come down to join us. We have so much to tell you."

​There was so much in Grace's communication that was not right to Dawes. He fumbled for a reply.

​"If I were to descend, that would put us at risk of not having enough battery power for everyone to return to the surface! A few faulty batteries would be all that it would take to strand some, or all of us, underground."

​Irvine's voice now came on the line.

​"Jonathan, there is no need to worry about that. Please do come down to join us. There is so much... so much to be revealed."

​Dawes was startled by Irvine's use of his given name. He could only recall Irvine doing so on a handful of occasions, mostly involving strong spirits. He had no choice, Irvine and Grace were in charge of the expedition. After signalling his assent to Irvine, he hung up and began his preparations for the descent.

​The brief conversation with Grace and Irvine had done nothing to calm his mind. To the contrary, even more questions were raised. Why had they not made even the slightest mention of Gibson and Evans? No explanation was offered for the Grace's strange silence earlier in the day. And something in the way they spoke was not quite right. Fearful implications, suggested by events of the last hour, arose once more in Dawes' mind. It was made worse by the fact that all of these impressions came as a result of his experiences as an auditor, which had forced his mind to create mental images to accompany what he heard.

​Like a man in a stupor, Dawes lurched around the camp, collecting materials that could prove useful, or necessary for his descent and sojourn, for however long it turned out to be. All the while, the prospect of five hours alone with his thoughts while the cable elevators conveyed him ever deeper, weighed heavily on his thoughts.

​It came as a complete and welcome surprise to him, that when he had settled on a course of action and boarded the first elevator, a measure of calm descended over him. In fact, he barely noticed the hours pass. Upon reaching the end of the last stage and disembarking from the cable elevator, he found the base camp deserted, and silent, save for the gentle sound of water flowing in the stream. Dawes moved around the camp, not really expecting to find anything that would explain the complete absence of the expedition's members.

​Before long, he began to perceive sounds coming from the tunnels. Something like the scraping of rocks, yet also somehow organic. It was then that the flow of water began to change. Irregular waves began appearing - from both upstream and downstream. The resultant lapping of the water played on Dawes' nerves, but not overmuch. It is no earthquake, he reasoned, for he felt no tremors from the ground. No, he knew what could be the only cause the movement of such a great volume of water. Heknew what was coming for him. He did not have much time.

​Miles away, in the village where the laborers had been hired to assist the expedition, a massive explosion was heard. The villagers turned to look towards the horizon and saw a tall plume of dust rising from the location of the expedition's camp. Some of the more experience laborers were heard to exclaim "dynamita!"