Rock consisted of three parts. The first was the music from Voyager. The second, the greetings also recorded on Voyager. It is because of the third part that you are here."
Lamb flicked the button and words showed on the screen. "This is the third part of the message when transcribed from the digital code."
HAWKINSROBERTVOLKERSFRANCINEBAT-SONDONALDLEV YDEBRA
"It took us a little while to recognize the names among the letters, as they were all just strung together." Lamb hit the forward and the message reappeared, this time broken down.
HAWKINS ROBERT
VOLKERS FRANCINE
BATSON DONALD LEVY DEBRA
"The message repeats your four names six times and then the entire message starts over again with the music."
"Why us?" Volkers asked the question they all had.
Lamb turned off the screen. "I was hoping one of you could tell me that."
REACTION
DSCC 14, Australia
21 DECEMBER 1995, 0900 LOCAL
20 DECEMBER 1995, 2330 ZULU
The room was silent for a long minute after Lamb's question. Debra Levy was the one to break the silence.
"Why don't we ask the Rock?"
"What?" Hawkins asked.
Levy seemed nervous to have everyone staring at her. "If you've broken down the code, then we can send messages into the Rock. We can use the code and the same frequency to transmit. Why don't we ask whoever, or whatever, is in there, why we were selected?"
"I think first we need to have a better idea what we're dealing with," Hawkins interjected.
Lamb seconded that. "It has been decided not to attempt any communication with the Rock quite yet.
"That's if there is anything in there to communicate with," he added. "Despite the fact that something apparently transmitted out of there, we can't be sure that it can receive."
"Well, what are you doing?" Fran asked.
"Colonel Tolliver's people have secured the immediate area of Ayers Rock with the help of the Australians," Lamb answered. "By the way, the Australian government is aware that there was a transmission out of the Rock and that it is somehow tied in to the explosion at Vredefort Dome and the missing bombs, but they do not know we have decrypted the message."
Fran rolled her eyes. "Besides guarding the Rock and keeping the message secret, what else are you doing?"
"It's more a question of what you're going to do," Lamb replied. "We are setting up living areas on top of the Rock. We're also bringing in mining equipment in case we have to dig down to the chamber. The Australians will not be very keen about that, since the Rock is a national landmark and legally it is set aside as a place of worship for the Aborigines, but if this is connected with the bombs, we might have to do that and they'll play along."
Batson raised a hand. "Can you show us the slide with the locations that the first transmission went to again?"
Lamb backed up the projector. "The one in North America is centered in northeast Arizona. Near the town of Winslow. The one in South America is in Argentina near a place called Campo del Cielo. The one in Europe is centered around Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Stuttgart in Germany. The one in Russia is in Central Siberia."
Don Batson was suddenly alert. "Do you have an atlas?"
Lamb pulled one off the table and handed it to Batson, who eagerly thumbed through. "Campo del Cielo is similar to Ayers Rock and Vredefort Dome in that there is a unique geological feature. I want to see what's in Germany and near Winslow."
He flipped open to Germany and looked. "I've been here--Nordlingen is right there in the center of a triangle formed by those three cities. There's a feature called Ries Basin there. And I know what's outside Winslow." He started turning pages, then stopped and looked up, his finger pointing down at the page. "Meteor Crater is only twenty miles outside of Winslow."
"I don't understand," Fran commented. "What does that have to do with the message?"
Batson was tapping his finger on the atlas. "Campo del Cielo and the Ries Basin are also
Lamb flicked the button and words showed on the screen. "This is the third part of the message when transcribed from the digital code."
HAWKINSROBERTVOLKERSFRANCINEBAT-SONDONALDLEV YDEBRA
"It took us a little while to recognize the names among the letters, as they were all just strung together." Lamb hit the forward and the message reappeared, this time broken down.
HAWKINS ROBERT
VOLKERS FRANCINE
BATSON DONALD LEVY DEBRA
"The message repeats your four names six times and then the entire message starts over again with the music."
"Why us?" Volkers asked the question they all had.
Lamb turned off the screen. "I was hoping one of you could tell me that."
REACTION
DSCC 14, Australia
21 DECEMBER 1995, 0900 LOCAL
20 DECEMBER 1995, 2330 ZULU
The room was silent for a long minute after Lamb's question. Debra Levy was the one to break the silence.
"Why don't we ask the Rock?"
"What?" Hawkins asked.
Levy seemed nervous to have everyone staring at her. "If you've broken down the code, then we can send messages into the Rock. We can use the code and the same frequency to transmit. Why don't we ask whoever, or whatever, is in there, why we were selected?"
"I think first we need to have a better idea what we're dealing with," Hawkins interjected.
Lamb seconded that. "It has been decided not to attempt any communication with the Rock quite yet.
"That's if there is anything in there to communicate with," he added. "Despite the fact that something apparently transmitted out of there, we can't be sure that it can receive."
"Well, what are you doing?" Fran asked.
"Colonel Tolliver's people have secured the immediate area of Ayers Rock with the help of the Australians," Lamb answered. "By the way, the Australian government is aware that there was a transmission out of the Rock and that it is somehow tied in to the explosion at Vredefort Dome and the missing bombs, but they do not know we have decrypted the message."
Fran rolled her eyes. "Besides guarding the Rock and keeping the message secret, what else are you doing?"
"It's more a question of what you're going to do," Lamb replied. "We are setting up living areas on top of the Rock. We're also bringing in mining equipment in case we have to dig down to the chamber. The Australians will not be very keen about that, since the Rock is a national landmark and legally it is set aside as a place of worship for the Aborigines, but if this is connected with the bombs, we might have to do that and they'll play along."
Batson raised a hand. "Can you show us the slide with the locations that the first transmission went to again?"
Lamb backed up the projector. "The one in North America is centered in northeast Arizona. Near the town of Winslow. The one in South America is in Argentina near a place called Campo del Cielo. The one in Europe is centered around Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Stuttgart in Germany. The one in Russia is in Central Siberia."
Don Batson was suddenly alert. "Do you have an atlas?"
Lamb pulled one off the table and handed it to Batson, who eagerly thumbed through. "Campo del Cielo is similar to Ayers Rock and Vredefort Dome in that there is a unique geological feature. I want to see what's in Germany and near Winslow."
He flipped open to Germany and looked. "I've been here--Nordlingen is right there in the center of a triangle formed by those three cities. There's a feature called Ries Basin there. And I know what's outside Winslow." He started turning pages, then stopped and looked up, his finger pointing down at the page. "Meteor Crater is only twenty miles outside of Winslow."
"I don't understand," Fran commented. "What does that have to do with the message?"
Batson was tapping his finger on the atlas. "Campo del Cielo and the Ries Basin are also
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