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interior of the canyon wall or rock structure of the Ancient Arrow _phering the artifacts. Scientists eagerly analysed the disc, but they site. There they found a system of tunnels and chambers that had could not figure out how to access its content. been carved out from solid rock. The ACIO's finest computer experts were called in to try to There was a total of 23 chambers, all intricately connected to an unlock the encoded disc, but to no avail. Several more months interior corridor, and each chamber held a specific wall painting, were spent trying every conceivable method to access the contents series of pictographs, written hieroglyphs and what seemed to be of the disc, but nothing worked. The Ancient Arrow project, for dormant, alien technologies. the first time in nearly a year, had hit a dead end, and funding for Once this entrance to the cavern had been found, a report was the project was rapidly weaned by the ACIO. immediately filed with the director responsible for the Ancient After two more months of unsuccessful efforts, it was decided Arrow project. The project was then formally brought under the that the technology to access the disc was simply not available. jurisdiction of the Advanced Contact Intelligence Organization The optical disc and all of the artifacts and findings were to be (ACIO) which organised an interdisciplinary research team to carefully placed in secure storage until the technologies were assess the exact nature of the site and attempt to discover addi- available to unlock the disc and harvest its content. It was pre- tional artifacts or evidence of an extraterrestrial visitation. sumed that the disc held star charts, translation indexes, glos- The ACIO is a secret or unacknowledged department of the saries, and all the answers to the various mysteries of its creators NSA. It is headquartered in Virginia, but it also has personnel in and, perhaps more importantly, their intentions for Earth. Belgium, India and Indonesia. It is largely unknown, even to While the optical disc was considered to be the key to unlock- senior directors within the NSA. The ACIO is the lowest profile ing the meaning of the time capsule, the ACIO had little choice organisation within the entire intelligence community. Its agenda but to place the project into storage and await the arrival of tech- is to research, assimilate and replicate any technologies or discov- nologies that would permit them to unlock the disc. eries of extraterrestrial origin. Its personnel consist mainly of sci- However, there were two scientists from the research team who entists who are completely anonymous, yet are paid salaries in theorised that the disc could be unlocked by understanding the excess of $400,000 per year because of their security clearance meaning of the wall paintings in each of the 23 chambers. In their and IQ. This secret organisation not only possesses enormous minds it was not a complex, technological solution, but rather a brain-power, but it is also in possession language or translation solution that of technologies that are far in advance would unlock the disc. of what any other research facility has After much persuasion, the ACIO on the planet. They are, in a word, . agreed to allow the two researchers to privileged. The artifacts found at the assemble a replica of the time cap- The artifacts found at the Ancient A A sule's contents. The replica time cap- Arrow site were virtually incompre- Ancient Arrow site were sule consisted of detailed drawings hensible to the research team. There virtually incomprehensible and photographs of all the artifacts were many mysteries. Why would an from each of the 23 chambers, includ- advanced culture leave their artifacts in to the research team. ing detailed, high-resolution pho- such a precise and seemingly ordered There were many mysteries. tographs of the wall paintings. The manner? What was the message they two scientists would be allowed to were trying to leave behind? What continue their research on their own were their technologies and why did time, provided they maintained utmost they leave them behind? Did the cre- secrecy and reported all of their find- ators of this site intermingle with the ings directly to the ACIO division native tribes or remain an isolated culture? Who were they and __ head and project director. why were they here in the 8th century? Were they planning to The optical disc was securely stored away in a vault within the return? These were only some of the mysteries that challenged ACIO. The project was officially put on indefinite hold, and all the research team. personnel associated with the project were reassigned (with pro- Throughout the seven months of restoration, cataloguing and motions) to different projects. The Ancient Arrow project was not analysis, the Ancient Arrow project was a complete enigma. More to be spoken of again until such time as the technologies, or some energy went into the safe preservation of the artifacts than in other means, provided a way to unlock the optical disc and access attempting to solve the puzzle of their existence, though specula- its contents. tions were a topic of every conversation. The scientists spent nearly five months in partnership, trying Gradually, an hypothesis was structured by the research team: unsuccessfully to decode the Ancient Arrow artifacts and estab- that an extraterrestrial culture had established an Earth colony in lish the means to unlock the optical disc. During this time, the the 8th century and had isolated itself within the Ancient Arrow ACIO regularly experimented with new technologies or methods, canyon; and that they had a very precise mission to leave behind a _but these, too, were unsuccessful in unlocking the content of the massive "time capsule" that would prove to be discovered in the optical disc. late 20th century. While the exact nature of the time capsule was One day, late in the summer of 1996, one of the scientists (a lin- unclear to the research team, it seemed probable that it was a cul- guistics expert) had an insight into how to unlock the optical disc tural exchange of some kind and had no invasive intent to Earth or by reducing the symbols of the wall paintings to their closest fac- its people. simile found in an ancient Sumerian text. While the Sumerian It took a team of researchers nearly two years after the restora- language is extinct, it was sufficiently comprehensible to this sci- tion was completed to decipher a partial meaning of the chamber _ entist that he was able to decode the symbols of the paintings, artifacts. The 23 separate chambers seemed to be linked together and, placing the 23 words in the same order as the Ancient Arrow to form some specific message or purposeful mission. In the 23rd chambers, he was finally able to unlock the optical disc. and final chamber, they recovered a small optical disc that was The connection between the Sumerian language and the time presumed to hold digital information that could be the key to deci- capsule was the breakthrough the ACIO team had been waiting virtually incomprehensible __ tothe research team. 36 + NEXUS APRIL — MAY 1999 The artifacts found at the Ancient Arrow site were There were many mysteries.