Wiped From Memory

REAL WORLD—JUNE 11, 2056

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

"The planet Mars. Time of interest, approximately 1 million years B.C. Selected geographic coordinates, provided by the parties requesting the information, were verbally given to the subject during the interview."

The voice came from a small speaker set onto a table in Minister Im's suite. The minister, as well as President DeCecco, stood close by with their arms crossed. They stared very intently at Dr. Wu Zuhai as he listened to this voice recording.

The doctor himself frowned as the elderly male voice buzzed on in its monotonous tone. He recognized what this must be. It was the format of one of the American CIA's remote viewing experiments. But… the planet Mars? A billion years ago? Why on earth would they have cared about that?

The recorded voice continued. There was now a second, younger voice, which was supposed to be the subject of the experiment. This was clearly a recording based on a report of the experiment itself, rather than a voice recording of the actual experiment.

The older voice said, "Alright now, using the information in the sealed envelope, without opening it, focus on these coordinates."

The younger voice replied, "I want to say it sort of looks like a pyramid, or a pyramid-like form. It's very high and sitting in a large depressed area. It's yellowish. Okra-colored."

"Alright," the older voice said. "Move in time to the time indicated in the sealed envelope and describe what's happening."

"I'm tracking severe, severe clouds," said the younger voice. "More like a dust storm… ah, it's a geological problem. Wait a minute. It's really weird."

"Go back in time to before the geological problem," said the older voice flatly.

"Oh, a total difference now. It's like mountains of dirt appear and then disappear when you go back in time. Large flat surfaces, very smooth angles, walls… they're really large, though. Megalithic."

"Alright," said the older voice, "now, in this time period, look around and see if you can find any activity."

Though the young voice's tone didn't change, the hairs on the back of Dr. Wu Zuhai's neck stood up as an eerie feeling filled him.

"I'm seeing the shadows of people," said the young voice. "Very tall, very thin… Only, they're not shadows. It's as if they were there, but also not there anymore at the same time."

The older voice replied, "go back to a period of time where they're fully there."

"There's a lot of static on the line. It's breaking up all the time, very fragmentary pieces… I keep seeing very large people. They appear thin and tall, but they're very large…"

The descriptions continued in this calm, inhuman tone for a short time, describing strange, carved-out architecture in the canyons and mountains of the planet Mars. They described a city built at a colossal scale, a scale that was perhaps even too large for the abnormally tall creatures who inhabited it.

All the while, Dr. Wu Zuhai's heart pounded harder. He wondered if the other two in the room could hear it. His head seemed to pound in time with his heart.

Then a certain set of details from the young voice caught his ear after it described the physical descriptions of some giant pyramids.

"They're like shelters from storms. Yes. They're designed for that. Inside are different chambers. But they're almost stripped of any kind of furnishings or anything. It's like they're strictly functional places for sleeping… That's not a good word. Hibernations. Some form of hibernation. Storms. Savage storms. And sleeping through storms."

The older voice responded, "Tell me about the ones who sleep through the storms."

"Very tall, very large people. But they're thin. They look thin because of their height…"

"Move closer to one of them and ask them to tell you about themselves."

There was a slight pause, as though the actor reading the text on the other side had to summon a sliver of focus before continuing.

Then the young voice spoke on. "They're ancient people. They're dying. It's past their time or age."

"Tell me about this," said the older voice.

"They're very philosophical about it. They're looking for a way to survive, but they just can't. Can't seem to find their way out, so they're hanging on while they look or wait for something to return… or something coming with the answer…"

"What is it they're waiting for?" asked the older voice.

"Evidently, there was a group or party of them that went to find a new place to live. I'm getting all kinds of overwhelming input of the corruption of their environment. It's failing very rapidly, and this group went somewhere, like a long way, to find another place to live."

Swiftly, Minister Im stepped to the speaker and pressed a button to power it off just as the next voice line was beginning.

"So, what do you think?" DeCecco asked eagerly as the recording ended.

Dr. Wu Zuhai looked slowly from one man to the other. Surely they didn't expect him to be astounded by what he'd just heard. Yet, eagerness covered both their faces, as though they'd just shared their most beloved possession with a dear friend.

"Well," the scientist said slowly, "that was certainly a recording of a… dramatization, perhaps, of the official American CIA record of a remote viewing session. Or at least it was designed to appear very similar to an authentic session. Please understand that what you just played for me seems… impossible."

"What?" Minister Im asked, sounding bewildered. "But, Doctor, considering everything that you know to be true…"

"Please be patient," Dr. Wu Zuhai said, raising his voice more than he usually did. The volume almost startled even himself. The alcohol had really lowered his inhibitions. "I haven't finished speaking yet."

He took a moment to gather his thoughts. The other two men were polite enough to remain silent during this time. Then the scientist continued speaking slowly. "I believe I've read all the CIA's remote viewing documents. Quite a large volume of them was publicly released under the American Freedom of Information Act decades ago. Yet, I've never read this one."

DeCecco spoke up. "My Satanic rival, the false shepherd Dockson Trust, had this recording scrubbed from public access during his short second term as President. He did a thorough job of even removing conversations about it from the internet. Until he did so, and thereby revealed his vile plans, it was freely available for anyone to access."

Dr. Wu Zuhai blinked a few times. He didn't care much about American politics. He'd never had to worry about them in his little University research station. Decades prior, one of the USA's political parties had rallied under the leadership of then-President Trust and his sidekick, then-Governor DeCecco.

After a purge of political opposition, resulting in many public executions or exiles—all in the name of creating God's holy order on Earth and destroying Satanic sex perverts—the two allies had turned against each other. Over the past twenty years, the USA had been in the grip of a strained tug-of-war between the old Republican Party and the newer Patriot Party, with DeCecco heading the first and Trust heading the second.

It could be said that the rest of the world was holding its breath, assuming that some manner of civil war was coming, one that might have catastrophic implications for the global economy. At the moment, DeCecco had seized control of the American presidency, but it was well known that Trust held most of the actual political power.

And Dr. Wu Zuhai didn't care about it in the slightest.

"Alright," he said wearily. "So your enemy Trust hid this information from the public, and then you got your hands on it. Yes, Satanism, whatever. Like I've said again and again, I don't believe in all of that. But you wouldn't have brought me here for purely religious reasons. You expect me to research for you? What is it you want me to research?"

"Doctor," Minister Im said, still sounding confused, "the special element you've been working with in your lab—the one that you can't replicate? Haven't you put the pieces together? It came from Mars. The metal which allows your experiments to work because you have just the tiniest quantity of it, which allows your research into the metaphysical workings of the mind to continue, was created by this ancient race which is extinct."

The Minister's face twisted into a wide smile. "We have proof. And we can get you as much of that metal as you need… the element you jokingly named orichalcum, after the ancient metal of lost Atlantis." He laughed. "A fitting joke, don't you agree? A true sign that the Lord is with us and will bless our mission in all that we do."

For the first time, Dr. Wu Zuhai had no response.