The Lucifer Sanction - By Jason Denaro Page 0,1

stations across Eurasia and produced fluctuations in atmospheric pressure strong enough to be detected by recently invented barographs in Britain. Over the next few weeks, night skies over Europe and western Russia glowed bright enough for people to read by. In the United States, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Mount Wilson Observatory observed a decrease in atmospheric transparency lasting several months.

The size of the blast was later estimated between ten and fifteen megatons. More recent expeditions have failed to find further remains of the object that caused the devastation.

Had the Tunguska Event taken place a mere 4 hours and 47 minutes later, St. Petersburg would have been completely obliterated.

The Andermatt explosion of April 4, 2015 created strange phenomena and it too was attributed to a meteor blast. The result reshaped the topography of a massive area, suspending dust in the atmosphere and illuminating night skies for several months. There was continual daylight that spread from Switzerland to Austria, into France and across Germany. Scientists at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory recorded the unbelievable decrease in atmospheric transparency well into the spring of 2015.

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Goldstone Deep Space Communication Complex Mojave Dessert 8:12 P: M

2042

On a midsummer evening of 2042 a faint transmission registered at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California’s Mojave Desert. The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex was operated by ITT Corporation for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Its main function was to track and communicate with space missions including the Pioneer Deep Space Station.

Goldstone antennae had been used as sensitive radio telescopes for scientific investigations such as radar mapping of planets, of the moon, of comets and asteroids. It mapped quasars and other celestial radio sources, locating asteroids and comets threatening to impact earth. Goldstone’s reliability was beyond question, especially its large-aperture radio antennas that detected ultra-high energy neutrino lunar interactions. When the Mojave facility pinpointed the faint bleep – bleep – bleep transmission near the Andermatt coordinates, there was no hesitation in undertaking an excavation rivaling any since the discovery of King Tut’s tomb.

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Dr. Craig Drummond pressed his finger on a faded orange button. The winter freeze had delayed excavation over the final weeks of 2044, and the welcome siren turned frustration to glee as it bounced about surrounding snowfields. A web of cellular phones announcing resumption of the dig quickly alerted those who didn’t hear its call to arms. Brightly clad volunteers set out from nearby ski resorts, chalets and small cabins spread about the Andermatt area, all coming together at the dig site, elated at the opportunity to witness what was rumored to be the find of the century. Within minutes of hearing the siren, a glut of media arrived in two buses and noisily crowded about the excavation site. A man resembling an aged Sean Connery stormed from the entry of the tunnel. He stood at attention, raised a megaphone to his mouth and shouted with a booming Scottish brogue, “Quiet please! We must have orderly conduct here!”

The crowd hushed and inched forward. The Scotsman lowered the megaphone and passed a superficial glance over excited faces. “I’m Doctor Craig Drummond. I have the pleasure of leading the research team for this project.” He extended a palm toward them. “Please, stay back. We can’t risk a collapse or contamination by one of you tumbling into God knows what.”

A camera crew jostled about for prime position. A female news anchor called out in a gingerly tone, “Doctor, we’ve heard you’ve located a UFO?”

“No comment, lassie,” Drummond said with impunity.

“But you have found something unusual down there,” and she made a jabbing pointing gesture at the tunnel entrance, “down at the bottom of the hole.” She jabbed again, this time with more resolve. “Is that correct, Doctor?”

Drummond gave a bemused glance, hesitated fractionally then snorted, “A hole! A bloody hole is it, girlie?” The word offended him. It berated the dig team’s efforts. “We’ve located an object at the lower level of the excavation, yeah. I can’t elaborate beyond that.”

The media core fell silent for a few long seconds, and then a young reporter, waving a pocket recorder pleaded, “Please Doctor, throw us a bone here.”

Drummond considered his reply with indignation. He allowed seconds to slip by.

“Two years ago,” Drummond said, “we received information from the Goldstone Deep Space people concerning the transmission of a signal emanating from this area.” Cameras rolled and pocket recorders were shoved as close to Drummond as to almost touch the speaker. “Please,” he baulked, “a little space here, move back a few