Lemuria by Burt Clinchandhill (epub e ink reader TXT) 📕

him and lay down next to him. The shabono materialized about two hundred feet away.

“Wow,” Jennifer whispered.

Mulder took a small spyglass from his pocket, extended it and put it to his eye. For a minute, he looked left and right, smiling. “Here.” He gave Jennifer the spyglass.

Jennifer turned a wheel, focusing the image until her face lit up.

On one side of the shabono, a young mother breastfed her baby. Opposite her, a man sharpened what looked like a spear, with a piece of metal or stone she couldn’t define. Another woman put something in a clay oven with a big open fire beneath it. In the center of the shabono, a group of children loudly laughed, playing soccer with a ball that appeared to be woven from cane or some sort of bamboo.

On the right side, a group of men sat in a small circle, talking with each other, an image she recognized from tribes in Africa. She also noticed the women were concentrated on one side of the shabono, and the men on the other. On the right, just outside the shabono—on the edge of the clearing and the rainforest—a large piece of dirt was converted into a vegetable garden, where apparently the older children worked the land.

Jennifer lay there for almost ten minutes before taking the spyglass down. “Fascinating. Absolutely astounding.”

Mulder nodded his head downhill.

“Okay,” Jenifer confirmed, and they carefully slid downhill again.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Mulder asked.

“It absolutely is. I could lay there and watch them all day.”

“I know.” Mulder recognized the feeling. “I remember the first time I looked through the spyglass in the same spot you were. I must have lay there for over an hour. It’s like watching a documentary on the History Channel.”

“It is,” Jennifer agreed. “But aren’t you afraid that you might disturb this unique ecological system?”

“Shall we?” Mulder pointed away and started walking again. “Not really.” He sounded firm. “We do everything to stay out of their way, and I believe that they do everything to stay out of ours.”

“So, they know you’re here?”

“We think so, but there’s never been any kind of direct confrontation, so we’re not sure.”

“But aren’t you afraid of the observer effect, that whatever you study, you also change?”

“There’s no evidence to substantiate that theory, and most certainly, we didn’t notice any change of behavior in the subjects that we’re observing.”

“People,” Jennifer snapped.

“Sorry?”

“You said ‘subjects.’”

“Forgive me. I guess that’s the scientist in me. People, of course.” Mulder gave a small bow.

A few minutes passed in silence as they followed a path through the rainforest, and came to a clearing. Jennifer took a good long look before she was sure. They had come from a different direction, but this was definitely the clearing she visited last night. Now, they neared the rock face from the left.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Mulder pointed up. “I mean, the rays of sunlight coming through the trees.”

“It is, indeed. And how about that?” Jennifer pointed toward the rocks.

“Those are ancient caves,” Mulder explained. “There’s some nice rupestral artwork near the entrance. You want to take a look?”

“Sure,” Jennifer agreed.

They crossed the clearing, and Mulder removed a flashlight from his pocket.

Jennifer followed suit.

“You came prepared,” Mulder remarked.

“You never know.” Jennifer smiled as she entered the cave.

“Here.” Mulder pointed his flashlight to cave drawings on the wall.

“Wow,” Jennifer uttered, while she searched the walls with her flashlight. “How far does this go?”

“I’m not sure. You can check it out if you like.”

Jennifer followed the corridor until she came to the cavern she visited last night. This time it was completely empty. No tables, no flashlights, not a single sign of civilization. She checked out the cavern with her flashlight, until she came to the corridor on the other side. Then she looked at Mulder.

“Go ahead.” Mulder pointed the way.

Jennifer crossed the room and went into the hallway. Not knowing what to expect, she cautiously shone her flashlight into the first room she came across. Nothing. Empty again. Not a trace of anything she saw last night.

How can this be? What had happened between last night and today, and why? She decided to check one more cavern. It, too, was empty except for a wooden table.

“Modern furniture for such an ancient cave,” she called out to Mulder, who stayed a bit behind.

“What?” Mulder came up and pointed his flashlight into the room. “Ahem. I see what you mean. I’m afraid this piece of old furniture was left here by no one less than modern man himself. In the beginning, when we came here, almost two years ago now, we set up camp inside the caves. But we quickly abandoned that idea.”

“Why?” Jennifer asked.

“First of all, there was the humidity that meddled with our equipment, and the transmitters from our drones could not penetrate the cave walls so....”

“So, you moved to the old mission,” Jennifer finished.

Mulder nodded. “Are you ready?”

“Ready,” Jennifer replied. She followed Mulder outside but stopped again at the first room in the corridor where a large, wrinkled piece of paper on the ground caught her eye. “One moment,” she called out as she picked it up.

“What’s that?” Mulder asked.

“I have no idea. A piece of paper, and I’m curious.”

Mulder walked back to her. As she unfolded it, she noticed it was a copy of Haeckel’s ‘Hypothetical Sketch of the Monophyletic Origin,’ she had seen hanging on the wall the night before.

“You know it?” Mulder asked.

“I’ve seen it before. It’s just a copy of an old world map.” She tossed it on the floor again.

“Must have been left behind when they cleared the caves.”

“That must be it,” Jennifer agreed, and the two cleared the caves and found their way back to the camp.

“So, what do you think of our little operation?” Mulder asked.

“It looks really well organized. I’m curious about your findings.”

“I’m happy to share those with you. Give me some time, and I’ll have them set up a computer for you with some structured data for you to sift through.”

“Yeah, sure, that would be great.”

“In the