OMEGA FILE 522:Galápagos, Ecuador
'Got your sun hats?' said Arla.
'Why?' asked Jude. 'Where are we going now?'
'South America,' Arla said.
'Big place,' said Jude. 'How about Chile? I like Chile.'
'No, it's Ecuador. You're going to the Galápagos Islands, a thousand kilometres out in the Pacific Ocean. '
'Oh, right,' Hawker said. 'Are you going to tell us why?'
Arla looked unhappy. 'There's something strange going on. EDI is getting emails every day from the Galápagos. They're all about Isabela Island and they all say things like this.' He gave Hawker and Jude a piece of paper.
* * * IMPORTANT NEWS* * * IMPORTANT NEWS* * *
A new time is coming for our planet.
The first visitors are now on Isabela Island, Galápagos.
Don't fight them. Don't be afraid of them. Be friendly.
Tell your government now.
Hawker and Jude looked at Arla, and then laughed. 'There are a lot of crazy people out there on the Internet,' said Jude. 'You don't believe this one—do you?'
'Perhaps it's crazy, and perhaps it's not,' said Arla. 'But when we email back with questions, they don't answer. The Americans are watching the island by satellite, but they don't want to tell us why. There are two Australian ships going there. The Mexicans are getting very excited, and the Ecuadorians are saying nothing... Something is happening on Isabela. What is it? We want to know. '
* * *
From Brussels to the Galápagos is a long way. Hawker and Jude took a plane to Cuba, a second plane to Ecuador, then a third plane out to Baltra Island, in the Galapagos. When they got out of the plane, a wall of hot air hit them.
'Whew,' said Hawker. He put on his sun hat quickly.
They went across to Santa Cruz Island and down to Puerto Ayora. There they found a boat, the Sea-Lion, to take them to Isabela, about 90 kilometres away. At first, the boatman, Gonzalo, did not want to take them.
'My boat can take ten people,' he said. 'It's a very good boat, but very expensive for only two people.'
Jude smiled at him. 'Not for two rich people.'
'Rich?' said Hawker. 'It's not our money—ouch!'
Jude hit him hard on the arm. 'We're on holiday,' she told Gonzalo. 'We want to see the giant tortoises on Isabela.' She looked at Hawker. 'Don't we?'
'Er, yes. That's right,' said Hawker quickly. 'We're very interested in the giant tortoises.'
On the way to Isabela Island Jude read a book about the Galápagos, and Hawker watched the sea. 'Isabela is a very young island,' Jude told him. 'And it has— listen to this ! —six volcanoes. One erupted only two years ago.'
'Oh, that's great!' said Hawker. 'Crazy emails, strange visitors in the middle of the Pacific, and now erupting volcanoes!Thank you, Arla!'
Not many people lived on Isabela, and Puerto Villamil was usually a sleepy place. But when the Sea-Lion arrived, there were about fifty people down by the sea. There were two small boats, and on them Hawker and Jude could see chairs and tables, beds, boxes and bags, and a bicycle.
Gonzalo called out in Spanish to the people on the boats, then turned to Hawker and Jude. 'Lots of people are leaving Isabela,' he said. 'They are afraid.'
'Afraid of what?' asked Jude. 'Go and talk to them, Hawker. Your Spanish is better than mine.'
Hawker came back half an hour later. 'You're not going to believe this,' he told Jude. 'The people here say there's a spaceship on Isabela. It came down ten days ago, right down inside Volcano Alcedo. And it's still there.'
'How do they know that?' said Jude.
'There's an Australian, Dr Jim Miller, up on Alcedo. He works here, studying giant tortoises. He saw the spaceship, and now he's waiting for the visitors to come out.'
'So the "visitors" in those emails are extraterrestrials. ETs. Little green men from another planet. Oh dear,' said Jude. 'Can we go home now, Hawker?'
Hawker laughed. 'No, we can't. We climb Volcano Alcedo,' he said. 'Talk to Dr Miller. Say hello to the ETs.'
'Oh dear,' Jude said again. 'I was afraid of that.'
Gonzalo took them in the Sea-Lion up to Shipton Cove. There, very early the next morning, Hawker and Jude began their climb up the volcano.
'There is a path,' Gonzalo told them, 'but it is five hours to the top and hard climbing. And very, very hot. You must carry water—two litres for one person for one day. You must sleep at the top and come down tomorrow— but not when the sun is high in the sky. And be careful, please !'
'Careful of the spaceship visitors, you mean?' said Jude.
'I don't know about spaceships,' smiled Gonzalo, 'but Volcano Alcedo is always a little excited — she is always doing something new.'
It was a very hard climb. After two hours, they stopped under some trees. They drank some water and looked out over the blue sea. The black volcanic rocks under their feet were hot from the sun.
'It's so beautiful here,' said Jude.
'Mmm. Yes and no,' said Hawker. Then, 'Hey, Jude! Look !That animal, over there by that rock. What—is—it?'
'Oh, wow!' whispered Jude. 'It's an iguana—a Galápagos iguana. Isn't he wonderful?'
The iguana stared at them with its hot orange eyes, and did not move. Its body was about a metre long, and an orange-yellowy colour.
'It looks about a thousand years old,' said Hawker. 'A very strange animal.'
'Everything about this island is strange,' said Jude.
They climbed and climbed, and the sun got hotter and hotter. After three more hours they came to the top, and looked down into the great crater of Alcedo, two hundred metres deep and seven kilometres across. To the north and the south they could see more volcanoes, and across the sea to the west the island of Fernandina—but they could not see Dr Miller or his camp.
'We need to go round the crater to the south,' said Hawker. 'It's another two hours' walk, the villagers said. '
It was hard walking over the black lava rock, and once Hawker nearly fell. Jude caught his arm.
'Don't break a leg here,' she said. 'I don't want to carry you back down to the boat.'
'Why not?' said Hawker. 'I carried you home once.'
'We weren't on top of a volcano then,' said Jude.
At last they saw Dr Miller's camp, and ten minutes later they arrived. Dr Miller was short, very brown, and angry.
'Go away!' he shouted. 'You're Americans, aren't you?'
'No, we aren't,' said Hawker. 'We're European. How do you do, Dr Miller?'
'What are you doing here?' he said angrily.
'We'd like to talk to you,' said Jude quietly. 'About the spaceship down in the crater. Why are you so angry?'
'Because nobody listens to me!' said Dr Miller. 'Nobody believes me! The Americans say, "Oh, crazy man!" The Australian government says, "Get some sleep!" What can I do? Something very important is happening on this planet, and nobody is listening !'
'Well, we're here now, and we're listening,' Jude said.
Dr Miller looked at them, 'Who do you work for?'
'Europe,' said Hawker. 'Europe is very interested in this spaceship. Please tell us about it. '
'Ah, the emails did get through, then,' said Dr Miller.
'Who did the emails come from?' asked Hawker.
'Ecuadorian friends,' said Dr Miller. 'Over on Santa Cruz. Look, I've got some beer here. You want one?'
They sat on the black lava rocks under the hot sun, and drank hot beer. Below them clouds of smoke and steam moved this way and that way across the crater. And was there, under those clouds, a spaceship from another planet?
'Sometimes I think I can see it down there,' said Jim Miller, 'but mostly I can't. It's a great white thing, and long legs came out of it when it came down.'
'But why here, Jim?' said Jude. 'Why into a volcano?'
'Who knows?' said Jim. 'Perhaps they like hot places. Perhaps they need something from the hot lava.'
'And why are you angry with the Americans, Jim?' Hawker asked. 'I know their beer's no good, but...'
'They watched this spaceship on their satellite. I know they did. They know it's here, but they don't want the world to know. They don't want people like you and me to meet any extraterrestrial visitors. Oh no! They want it all to be a big secret. Then they can be top dog. '
Just then there was a sudden noise, a BOOM deep below the ground. 'What... what was that, Jim?' asked Jude.
'Oh, Alcedo does that all the time,' said Jim. 'Then hot water comes up, and steam, dust—sometimes a little lava, but not much. That's why there are always clouds in the crater. You can never see anything down there.'
'Can we climb down into the crater?' asked Hawker.
'Are you crazy? It's dangerous down there!' Jim said.
All evening Hawker and Jude stared down into the crater, but they could see nothing through the clouds of steam and dust. Just before the sun went down, Hawker saw something near the top of the crater and shouted to Jude, but it was only two of the giant tortoises. They came slowly past the camp and went away down the other side of the volcano. Later, four more came past, going the same way, moving slowly and quietly over the black rocks.
'They're very strange animals!' said Jude.
Hawker and Jude did not sleep much. The rocks were hard, and below them they heard again and again the deep BOOM of the volcano. Late in the night they turned their radio on. It was very noisy, but through the noise they could hear a voice from Santa Cruz. Hawker listened hard.
'They're talking about Volcano Alcedo!' he said. 'They think it's going to erupt in the next twenty-four hours!'
Jude sat up. 'Oh no! We're seven hours away from the boat. Let's get moving! Go and call Jim.'
But Jim Miller did not believe Santa Cruz radio. 'It's the Americans again,' he said. 'They want us all to go away.'
'Please come with us, Jim,' said Jude. 'Please. You can come back in a day or two. '
'You two go,' said Jim, 'but I'm staying right here, and watching that spaceship. '
It was a hard climb down. When they got to the sea, they saw Gonzalo with the little boat. 'Hurry!' he shouted. 'Did you hear on the radio? Alcedo's going to erupt!'
Quickly, they went out to the Sea-Lion and climbed up onto the boat. 'Go! Go! Go!' Gonzalo shouted to his men, and before long the Sea-Lion was a kilometre out at sea.
Two hours later Volcano Alcedo erupted. There was asudden great BANG! —and then clouds of dust flew up into the sky. Red-hot lava came out of the volcano's sides and ran down to the sea. The noise did not stop, and with every bang, rocks flew hundreds of metres up into the sky, then fell slowly back down to the ground. For hours the night sky was filled with great flowers of red and orange light.
It was a beautiful, and a terrifying thing to watch.
□ □ □
'What happened to Dr Miller?' I asked.
'Poor Jim went to the great spaceship in the sky,' Jude said. 'Five hundred metres of red-hot lava fell on top of him.'
'And was there a spaceship in the volcano?'
'No', said Jude.
'Yes,' said Hawker.
He looked at Jude, and they laughed. Then Jude looked at me. 'What do you want to believe?' she asked. 'They weren't very clever extraterrestrials, were they?—sitting there in their spaceship in an erupting volcano!'
Hawker smiled. 'Ah, but perhaps the spaceship left just before the volcano erupted. Gonzalo and I saw something in the clouds of dust—a white light, moving very fast, faster than the dust. It went up very high.'
'Well, I didn't see anything,' said Jude. 'And that's because there wasn't anything in that volcano!'
Hawker looked up into the blue Greek sky. 'How do we know?' he said slowly. 'One day someone, or something, is going to visit us from out there. Perhaps that was the first visit, all those years ago in the Galápagos. Who knows?'
?奧米茄文件第522號:厄瓜多爾,加拉帕戈斯
“帶你的太陽帽了嗎?”阿拉問。
“干嗎?”祖德說,“我們?nèi)ツ膬海?rdquo;
“南美洲。”阿拉回答。
“范圍太大了,”祖德說,“去智利怎么樣?我喜歡那兒。”
“不,是去厄瓜多爾。你們要到加拉帕戈斯群島去,那兒是一片距陸地1,000公里遠的太平洋小島。”
“哦,好的,”霍克說,“告訴們?nèi)サ哪康陌伞?rdquo;
阿拉顯得很不悅。“那兒有異常情況。EDI每天都能收到加拉帕戈斯發(fā)來的電子郵件,都是關(guān)于伊莎貝拉島的,內(nèi)容都是這樣的。”說著,他遞給霍克和祖德一張紙。
* * *重要消息* * *重要消息* * *
我們的星球迎來了一個新紀元。
第一批訪問者已到達加拉帕戈斯的伊莎貝拉島。
不要與他們交火。不要懼怕他們。友好地接待他們。
通知你們的政府。
霍克和祖德看了看阿拉,笑了。“網(wǎng)上有一些瘋狂的人,”祖德說,“你不會相信這個的——對嗎?”
“也許是瘋狂之人干的,也許不是。”阿拉說,“可當我們發(fā)郵件詢問時,他們并不回信。美國人正用衛(wèi)星監(jiān)視這個島,但他們不告訴我們原因。有兩艘澳大利亞船只正趕往那里。墨西哥人也很興奮,但厄瓜多爾人卻保持沉默……伊莎貝拉島一定有什么事情正在發(fā)生。是什么事呢?我們要知道。”
* ?。 。?br />
布魯塞爾離加拉帕戈斯很遠?;艨撕妥娴孪茸w機到古巴,又從古巴飛到厄瓜多爾,然后又飛到加拉帕戈斯群島之一的巴爾特拉島。他們一下飛機,就感覺一股熱浪襲來。
“哦!”霍克驚嘆,急忙戴上了他的太陽帽。
他們穿過圣克魯斯島,先到達阿約拉港,在那兒找到一只名為“海獅”的小船,送他們前往約90公里遠的伊莎貝拉島。一開始船夫貢薩洛不愿送他們?nèi)ァ?br />
“我的船能載十人,”他說,“它可是條好船,只載兩人費用會很高的。”
祖德微笑著說:“要是載兩個有錢人,那點兒費用就不算什么了。”
“有錢人?”霍克插嘴道,“那可不是我們的錢——啊呦!”
祖德狠狠地打了一下他的手臂。“我們是來度假的,”她對貢薩洛說,“想去看伊莎貝拉島的巨龜。”她望著霍克說,“難道不是嗎?”
“嗯,對,是這樣的。”霍克連忙說,“我們對巨龜很感興趣。”
在去伊莎貝拉島的路上,祖德讀一本關(guān)于加拉帕戈斯島的書,而霍克則看著大海。“伊莎貝拉形成的時間并不長。”祖德對霍克說,”它有——天??!——六個火山。其中一個就在兩年前噴發(fā)過一次。”
“哦,太好了!”霍克說,“瘋狂的電子郵件,太平洋中央怪異的造訪者,現(xiàn)在又添上了噴發(fā)的火山群!托你的福了,阿拉!”
伊莎貝拉島上沒多少居民,而維拉米爾港通常是個寂靜的地方??删驮?ldquo;海獅號”到達那里時,海邊聚集了大約50個人。海邊有兩只小船,霍克和祖德看到船上有桌椅、床鋪、箱包,還有一輛自行車。
貢薩洛用西班牙語和小船上的人打招呼,然后朝祖德和霍克轉(zhuǎn)過身來。“許多人都要離開伊莎貝拉。”他說,“他們很害怕”。
“他們害怕什么?”祖德問道,“霍克,去和他們談談,你的西班牙語比我的好。”
霍克半小時后回來了。“你不會相信的,”他告訴祖德,“他們說伊莎貝拉島上有一艘宇宙飛船。它降落在那兒十天了,恰好落在阿爾塞多火山口里?,F(xiàn)在它仍在那里。”
“他們怎么知道的?”祖德問。
“有個澳大利亞人,吉姆·米勒博士,在阿爾塞多山上。他在那兒工作,研究巨龜。是他發(fā)現(xiàn)的那艘飛船,而現(xiàn)在他還在那兒等里面的天外來客出來。”
“原來電子郵件里說的‘訪問者’就是外星人(ET)呀,那些從另一個星球來的矮小的、綠皮膚的生物。哦,天哪!”祖德說,“霍克,我們能回去了嗎?”
霍克笑了。“不,還不能。我們得爬上阿爾塞多火山,”霍克說,“和米勒博士談談,還要和外星人打個招呼。”
“哦,天啊!”祖德又說,“我可不敢。”
貢薩洛的“海獅號”一直把他們送到希普頓海灣。第二天一大早,霍克和祖德就從那兒向火山進發(fā)了。
“那兒有條小路,”貢薩洛告訴他們,“可爬到頂需要五個小時,而且很難走,還非常非常的熱。你們必須帶夠水——每人每天兩升。你們必須在山頂上過夜,明天下山——千萬別等太陽升起時才動身。一定要小心!”
“你是說小心飛船上的外星人嗎?”祖德問。
“我可不知道什么宇宙飛船,”貢薩洛笑著說道,“但阿爾塞多火山的情緒總是有點不穩(wěn)定——她總是做讓人意想不到的事兒。”
上山的路很難走。走了兩個小時后他們在幾棵樹下休息,喝了些水,望著遠處的藍色大海。他們腳下黑色的火山巖被太陽曬得燙腳。
“這兒真美。”祖德感嘆。
“嗯,既美又不美。”霍克說。停了一會兒,他突然說:“嗨,祖德!你看哪!那里有個動物,就在那塊巖石邊。它是——什么——東西?”
“哦,哦!”祖德輕聲說,“那是一只美洲大蜥蜴——一只加拉帕戈斯蜥蜴。他長得多漂亮啊!”
蜥蜴用它那兇狠的橘黃色眼睛盯著他們倆,一動不動。它有大約一米長,身體是橘黃色的。
“它看上去仿佛有1,000歲了。”霍克說,“真是一種奇怪的動物。”
“這個島上所有的東西都很奇怪。”祖德說道。
他們繼續(xù)爬呀爬,太陽也越來越灼人了。又過了三個小時,他們爬到了山頂,向腳下的火山口望去,只見此坑有200米深,直徑有7,000米。他們還可看見此山北面和南面的另外幾座火山,西面海上的費爾南迪納島——但他們卻沒看見米勒博士或他的帳篷。
“我們得沿著火山口到南面去,”霍克說,“村里人說,還要走兩個小時才能到呢。”
在黑色的巖漿石上行走是很困難的。一次霍克差一點兒摔倒,祖德抓住了他的胳膊。
“別在這兒摔斷了腿,”祖德說,“我可不想把你從這兒背回船上去。”
“為什么不想?”霍克問,“有一次可是我把你背回家的。”
“但那一次我們可不在火山頂上。”祖德說。
他們終于看見米勒博士的帳篷了,并花了十分鐘走到了帳篷跟前。米勒博士個頭矮小,皮膚呈棕色。他看見他們很生氣。
“走開!”他大叫,“你們是美國佬,不是嗎?”
“不,不是,”霍克說,“我們是歐洲人。米勒博士,你好嗎?”
“你們來這兒干什么?”他氣乎乎地問。
“我們想和你談談,”祖德心平氣和地回答,“是有關(guān)火山口底下的那個飛船的。你為何如此生氣?”
“因為沒人聽我的!”米勒博士說,“沒人相信我!美國人說:‘哦,一個瘋子!’澳大利亞政府說:‘你該去睡覺了!’我能做什么?一件重大的事情即將在地球上發(fā)生,卻沒人聽我說!”
“好了,我們不是在這兒嗎,我們在聽你說。”祖德說。
米勒博士著看他們,問:“你們?yōu)檎l工作?”
“歐洲,”霍克回答,“歐洲對這只飛船很感興趣,請給我們講講吧。”
“啊,看來電子郵件發(fā)出去了。”米勒博士說。
“誰發(fā)的郵件?”霍克問。
“我的厄瓜多爾朋友們,”米勒博士說,“他們住在圣克魯斯島。看,我這兒有啤酒,來一杯吧?”
他們頂著烈日坐在黑巖漿石上喝著熱啤酒。團團煙霧從他們腳下的火山口這里、那里冒上來。在這些煙霧下真有一艘外星飛船嗎?
“有時我覺得在下面能看見它,”吉姆·米勒說,“但多數(shù)情況下我看不見它。它很大,是白色的,降落時船身里伸出許多長腿來。”
“吉姆,它為什么會降落在這兒?”祖德問,“為什么在一個火山口里?”
“誰知道。”吉姆答道,“也許他們喜歡待在熱的地方,也許他們要從熱巖漿里獲取什么。”
“吉姆,你為什么生美國人的氣?”霍克問,“我只知道他們的啤酒很糟糕,可……”
“他們用衛(wèi)星監(jiān)視這艘飛船,我知道他們在監(jiān)視。他們知道飛船在這兒,可他們不想讓全世界知道。他們不愿讓你們和我這樣的人和任何外星人接觸。哦,他們不想!他們想讓它成為一個大秘密,這樣他們就是世界上的老大了。”
就在那時,地下深處突然傳來“嘭”的一聲巨響。“那……那是什么聲音,吉姆?”祖德問道。
“噢,阿爾塞多總是發(fā)出這樣的聲響,”吉姆回答她說,“響過以后會噴出些熱水、水蒸汽及火山灰——偶爾還會有一點兒巖漿,但不多。這就是為什么火山口處總是云霧繚繞的原因了。因此,你永遠看不清坑底有什么。”
“我們能爬下去嗎?”哈克問。
“你瘋了嗎?下面太危險了!”吉姆說。
整個傍晚,霍克和祖德都盯著火山口的下面,可那兒煙霧彌漫,還有火山灰,他們什么也看不見。就在太陽快落山時,霍克看見靠近坑口處有一個東西,他連忙叫祖德,可最后發(fā)現(xiàn)那僅是兩只巨龜。它們慢慢地從帳篷旁邊爬過,下到火山的另一側(cè)。過了一會兒,又有四只巨龜沿著同樣的路線,慢吞吞、靜悄悄地從黑色巖石上爬過。
“它們真是種奇怪的動物!”祖德說。
霍克和祖德沒有睡多久就醒了。巖石太硬,而且火山在他們下面不時地發(fā)出巨響。后半夜他們擰開收音機。雜音特別大,但透過雜音他們能聽見圣克魯斯的一個電臺。霍克仔細地聽著。
“他們說的是阿爾塞多火山!”他說,“他們認為火山將在24小時內(nèi)噴發(fā)!”
祖德一下子坐直了:“哦,不!我們離船還有七個小時的路。快走吧!叫上吉姆。”
可是吉姆·米勒并不相信圣克魯斯電臺。“這又是美國人的鬼把戲,”他說,“他們想讓我們離開。”
“吉姆,和我們一起走吧!”祖德說,“求你了,你一兩天以后可以再回來嘛。”
“你倆下山去吧,”吉姆說,“我是哪兒也不去,就在這兒守著飛船。”
歷盡千辛萬苦,兩人終于下了山。當他們來到海邊時,看見了貢薩洛和他的小船。“快點兒!”貢薩洛喊道,“聽廣播了嗎?阿爾塞多就要噴發(fā)了!”
他們飛快地朝“海獅號”走去,爬上了船。“起錨!起錨!起錨呀!”貢薩洛沖他的水手大喊道。不一會兒,“海獅號”已離岸一公里了。
兩小時后,阿爾塞多火山噴發(fā)了。驚天動地的一聲巨響!——一團團火山灰被拋向空中,火紅炙熱的巖漿從火山口四處溢出來,流向大海。巨響一聲連著一聲,伴著每一次響聲,巖石被拋向數(shù)百米的空中,然后又慢慢地落到地上。一連好幾個小時,夜空里到處是紅色和橘紅色的火花。
那種景象既美麗非凡,又異??植馈?br />
□ □ □
“米勒博士怎么樣了?”我問道。
“可憐的吉姆上了空中的巨型宇宙飛船,”祖德回答,“500米高的火紅炙熱的巖漿從他的頭頂上澆下來。”
“火山口里真有飛船嗎?”
“沒有。”祖德回答。
“有。”霍克回答。
霍克望著祖德,他們一起笑了。然后祖德看看我。“你相信誰?”她問,“外星人并不聰明,對嗎?——居然把他們的飛船停落在一個噴發(fā)的火山口里!”
霍克笑了。“哦,也許飛船在火山噴發(fā)前就離開了。貢薩洛和我都看見漫天的火山灰里有一個東西——一個白色的光點,移動得很快,比灰塵還快。它向高空飛去。”
“噢,可我卻什么也沒看見,”祖德說,“因為火山里什么也沒有!”
霍克抬頭望著希臘蔚藍色的天空。“我們又怎么會知道呢?”他緩緩地說,“總有一天,遙遠的天際會有人或其他什么來造訪地球的?;蛟S多年前出現(xiàn)在加拉帕戈斯的飛船正是他們的首次訪問。誰知道呢?”