The whole hangar was buzzin' with curiosity when we landed. They already received radio confirmation of the anomaly. That's what everyone calls it now—the anomaly. All they knows so far is that there are mysterious warm updrafts comin' from an area 'bout one and a half miles in diameter. It's uncertain whether any other explorers came across the anomaly in their searches, but it wouldn't matter none if they did. Ta find it twice, ya'd hafta chart it. Without foil wrapped wirin' ta block electromagnetic disturbances, ya might not ever come acrost it again. The Arctic is enormous. I read it was 5, 500, 000 sqare miles. Findin' a one and a half mile indentation it that large of an area is purt near impossible. Moses searched for the promised land for forty years in an area much smaller. I reckon by his standard it would take over 215 years, unless ya got lucky.

Too bad we couldn't land the airplane and do some ground explorin'. Captain Haskins was right. It would have been way too risky to set the plane down when we didn't have any idea what the surface was like. What if it got bogged in slushy ice, or worse? Ol' Grizz could be stuck there forever.

Our next course of action would be to send out the snow cats, but first they had to get their wires wrapped too. It was a good thing the keepers supplied us with more than enough foil.

Sandy Dunn hurried into the darkroom to develop her film and make prints. While she was doing that, almost every one else gathered in the rec. room speculating, arguing, and such. TGT retired to Freck's room so's we could speak freely. Even though we were communicating telepathically it wouldn't do to have someone watching and guess what we was up to. It was just a precaution. Gramma used to say, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Boy was she right. If it got out that we could speak mind-to-mind there wouldn't even be a cure, other than time.

"Do ya think any of the pictures Sandy took are going to reveal anything?" Freck wondered.

Gee responded, "I do not think they will. The illusion is extremely well made. It is better than even the keepers can craft. It is so good that I am certain our snow cats can drive right over the top of the hole and not fall through. It is obvious the Arianni people really do not want to be found."

I rubbed my fingers back and forth through my short hair, "Admiral Byrd said they flew right in. How could they do that without crashin'?"

"They had prepared an urgent message for Topside. If you remember, they warned the Admiral that the use of nuclear weapons would destroy human civilization. Those who survive, if any do, will live in conditions no better than the Dark Ages.

"It was also explained that they had made efforts to contact earth's leaders, but their ships were fired on. Direct communication was fruitless. When they learned of Admiral Byrd's expedition, they opened their barrier illusion allowing him to fly through."

"Oh, I get it," Freck spoke, "that's probably why I was given the Initiator ability. I'll bet we're gonna hafta talk with them to get them to let us in."

"That, my dear students, to use a human expression, is easier said than done. You see they let the Admiral fly through because he was an important person who could credibly relay their message. Anyone else without his credentials would be dismissed as a crackpot. What they did not foresee was that his military superiors would suppress the message and bind him with a vow of silence. He steadfastly obeyed those orders until he knew he was dying. That is when he decided that the message was too important to remain a military secret. He did not want it to die with him. Two years before he passed, he published the story and the dire warnings. By then his stature had slipped, and the military could dismiss the whole thing as deathbed ravings."

"That is so sad," Freck was slumped over with elbows on her thighs, "why do people do things like this?"

"Humanity is a mixed bag Freck. You are brilliant innovators, the best in the known intra-verse. You are also the most fearful. Anything new is greeted with suspicion at best, and hostility at the worst. The military establishment is no different. Their job requires being ever vigilant, for this reason they do not greet the unknown with open arms. Until proven differently the unknown is always first viewed for its threat potential. If deemed necessary it's shoot first, and ask questions later.

"When faced with the odd orb shaped Arianni aircraft there was no time to compute the danger. Fighter jets were scrambled with orders to shoot them down. The fighter jets were unsuccessful. With a burst of incredible speed and unbelievable quick turning ability the objects disappeared. Given this face-to-face encounter and the testimony of Admiral Byrd, I am certain they decided combat was not an option. The alternative? Keep it under wraps, be watchful, and pray our technology catches up.

Because of the big crash, military personnel assigned to the Pole were with withdrawn for more pressing duties. That was fortunate for us, otherwise they may have interfered with our search.

➰➰➰

I could now see how vital it was for us to contact the Arianni's. They, with their advanced technology, might hold the answers to save us all. Gee opened a mind-meld space for us. The hope was that with combined mind-power we could connect with them. Ya see, Freck tried on her own and got nowhere. We think it was just too far to reach on her own. The map of Hollow Earth revealed that from inside it to earth's surface was roughly eight hundred miles. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but eight hundred miles through who knows how many layers of rock? That,we were sure, Freck couldn't do it alone.

We used cooperative cigam to focus our combined thought. It didn't work neither. Then we imagined a drill like device that would auger itself through layers of rock and whatnot to deliver a recorded message. Gee made our vision take form. Drilling through hundreds of miles of rock takes time--time we may not have, but we launched it anyways.

I had a thought, "Do ya all remember those bad dreams we were all havin'?"

Freck said, "I sure do. They were horrible. Every one of them started with us searching and ended up in total disaster. The thing is, all of us, including the crew, dreamed the same thing at the same time. That was very odd, don't ya think?"

"It sure was, Freck." I agreed. "Those connected dreams cain't happen by coincidence. Someone was sending them into our minds to discourage us. It weren't really dreams we was havin' it was more like we was watching a TV show together. They were communicating with us. If we can figure out how they did it, we can do it back to them."

"Of course," Gee was bustin' with excitement, "that's pure genius Wishes. If we approach them in their unconscious minds we will not encounter resistance. Now, how do we do it?"

That was a stumper. We sat there in the mind-meld lookin' at each other hopin' someone would come up with an answer, but no one did.

➰➰➰

Strangely enough it was Sandy's pictures that finally gave us a clue. Freck asked her if we could borrow a few prints to study them on our own. Sandy didn't mind. They had been pouring over them until their eyes were all bugged out. They really needed a break she told Freck.

There was a small wood table in Freck's room. We pulled up two chairs and spread the photos out. I wasn't seeing nothing and neither was Freck. Gee did. He pointed out to us something that was obvious to him, but not to us. "See that hairline crack running across the illusion? That has to be the place where the doors meet. There is another hairline that circles the entire hole."

Try as I might I couldn't see what he was talkin' about, but Freck squinted, nodded, and finally said "Uh-huh."

I'll be danged if I was going to be left out, so I said, "Uh-huh," too, even though I didn't really see anything there at all. It was just white on white. There were some gray shadows here and there, but that was it. If Gee and Freck saw it, that was good enough for me.

Gee was still showin' and pointin' at stuff. As he traced his long digit around the ring, he suddenly stopped. "Look here."

We looked and Freck gasped, "What is that?"

He said, "It appears like antenna to me. It is small, barely three feet tall I would guess. It is definitely not a natural feature."

"Do you think we ought to tell the others?"

"Not right now. We need to review some of the other prints first, just to be sure we do not miss anything."

So we looked, looked, and looked again. We turned the pictures sideways. We turned them upside down. Which was kinda funny since how can a circle be upside down? We did it anyways to see if a new point of view would reveal something. Now I understand why Sandy's eyes was buggin' out.

If I kept staring and staring, I was bound to see just about anything in the snow shadows. Whoa, hold on, I spotted something. "Right there, do ya see it?" I said all excited like. I pointed to a place just outside the circle. "That right there, it looks like an angel."

Freck scowled and told me that it wasn't funny. She said, "We're looking for something actual and you're just jokin' around. Angels sure, ya need to get serious about this Wishes."

The thing is, I wasn't kidding them. I did see what looked like an angel in the snow patterns. When I looked again, it was still there, plain as toast without butter. I believed them when they saw hairline cracks and a mysterious antenna. Why didn't they believe what I saw? "Please look harder," I pleaded, "there really is an angel or something else there."

Gee gently told me, "You are imagining things. Maybe it is time for a break. Our eyes are strained. Wishes, you should go to our room and take a little nap."

Freck yawned. "Good idea, Gee. A nap would do me some good too."

➰➰➰

I've never been good at taking naps when I wasn't sleepy. In kindergarten the teacher would call out, "Nap time" and we had to get our little rugs to go to sleep on. If ya tried to get up before the end of quiet time, or even raise your head for a look around, you'd get a warning. "Wishes, lay back down and be quiet." So I would. I didn't sleep though. She could make me lie down, but she couldn't make me sleep.

The only good thing about nap time was when it was over ya got graham crackers and your choice of orange drink, white milk, or chocolate milk. For me it was always chocolate. After snacks we got to play again. It made forced naps a little easier to take.

There I was lying restlessly on the bed pondering the strange image of an angel. I saw it. I know I did. Why couldn't they see it too? What did that mean? Was it for my eyes only? Or were they just too distracted by the odd antenna thing to consider that something equally incredible was standing nearby in the snow?

Was she pointing? I think she was pointing at me, but how could that be? Why did I think the angel was female? There are guy angels too. All the biggies are male, Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. Were there any girl Archangels? Maybe Freck would know. She's way more churchy than me. I couldn't even figure out where my knowing about Archangels came from. Why would an angel point directly at me? Was it a warning, or an invitation? So many questions. My head was a whirling so fast it made me want to throw up.

Inside my head I heard a sort of familiar voice, "Take some deep breaths Wishes."

It wasn't Gee or Freck talking to me. I know their mind-speaking voices. "Who's that talking to me?" I really wanted to know. I waited for an answer, but none came.

I ventured, "Are you the angel I seen in the photo?"

"Yes, but I ain't no angel."

"Didn't I spy wings?"

"What ya seen was me trying to get your attention, by waving in the snow."

"Oh, if not an angel, what are you then?" I asked, but the mind-link was closed. Dang, I had more questions than answers.