The time went too quickly, and soon Carver announced that they had overstayed their welcome and would have to leave. Anderson dumped his ballast and the Squid began its upward spiral home.
The R/V Falling Star stayed on station for about a week and multiple visits were made to the mysterious object. Eventually, Mike was also given a chance to see the mysterious object first hand. The profound impact of this perfectly smooth massive object lying on the ocean bottom would send shock waves through the intelligence establishment. Unfortunately for Sevson and Robison, their scientific reports were cloaked in the highest levels of secrecy and would never be published. However, both Sevson and Robison asked for and got funding to conduct similar research in non sensitive regions thereby giving them cover for reporting on these tremendous engineering advances in ocean exploration. The curtain of state secrets fell quickly on the mysterious object in the Hatteras Abyssal Plain. Mike and McHugh continued to work on the project from their offices in Port Hueneme.
“Come in, Mike,” said McHugh.
Mike entered McHugh’s office. With McHugh were two men dressed in civilian suits. The three seemed to have been engaged in discussion about something but ceased when Mike knocked on McHugh’s door. The three men were seated, McHugh behind his desk and his two visitors on the side chairs.
“Have a seat, Mike,” said McHugh. “These two men are from Naval Intelligence. They would like to talk to us. Seems we blundered into something much bigger than we thought. Mike, this is Commander Richard Thompson and Lieutenant Robert Cohen. Gentlemen, Lieutenant Mike Liu.”
“Mister Liu,” spoke the older of the two. “The object located on the Hatteras Abyssal Plain, appears to be one of several located around the continental United States. After your work with Commander McHugh, we went back to our magnetometer surveys and found the same anomaly in three other locations, they escaped detection simply because their magnetic signature is only noticeably detectable during low altitude flights and no one understood their significance like that fellow Evans did here. Despite his hot rod flying, Buck Morrow’s flying antics have enabled us to stumble on to something of mind boggling consequence.
“While we are now satisfied that they are not of Russian origin, we quite frankly do not know how or when they were placed in their locations. The work that you and Bob McHugh have done has contributed to our knowledge immensely. However, in order to integrate the data in the most expeditious fashion possible, we need your expertise.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” asked a puzzled Mike.
“Lieutenant Liu, both Lieutenant Cohen and I are actually from an interagency group called CSAC whose charter is to conduct investigations no other agency can or on its own could conduct,” said Thompson. “We have been instructed to invite you and Commander McHugh to join our efforts.”
“What does CSAC stand for?”
“That is classified, as is its very existence.”
“What do we have to do?”
“Normally, CSAC agents come from one or another of the service intelligence agencies, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, the Federal Alcohol and Firearms Department, or the Central Intelligence Agency. As a result, those agents can assimilate quickly into the structure. However, in your case coming from regular navy duty and all, we will have to train you in forensics, criminal investigation, technical knowhow, firearms etc. When your duty permits it you will be sent TDY to the FBI training academy in Quantico, Virginia, for the basics.
“Your cover will be that you have joined the Office of Naval Intelligence. Oh, by the way, how do you feel about carrying a gun?”
Edward McIntyre got out of his jeep and walked over to the military policeman standing near the parking lot to the detention barracks.
“Who’s that?” asked McIntyre, a Captain in the Air Force.
“Some Navajo shepherd,” replied the Airman, “one of the investigators thinks he might have some information of interest.”
“Doesn’t look very happy,” commented McIntyre as he went into the detention barracks to pick up some files.
The Navajo was taken into the detention barracks by the Air Force investigator through the back entrance.
1970–1993: The Intervening Years
The existence of the mysterious objects had been uncovered during an ordinary geomagnetic profiling flight over the western Atlantic Ocean in the late Sixties. The flights were commissioned by the Oceanographer of the Navy for ostensibly scientific purposes and called, “Project Magnet.”
Project Magnet’s true purpose had been to profile the background magnetic signature of the waters adjoining the continental United States to facilitate anti-submarine warfare. The nuclear submarine force of the United Socialist Soviet Republics prowled the seas off the coast of America waiting for orders to launch ballistic missiles aimed at strategic targets onshore. Knowing the magnetic background allowed the U.S. Navy to detect and monitor these forces and to deploy submarine, surface and airborne deterrents. The P-3B Orions were a principal component of the Navy’s ASW capability.
Some cowboy Orion pilot flying the deck had stumbled onto something unimaginable. That something was called the Morrow Affair before the federal government was able to hush it forever. Certain key participants in the Morrow Affair were suddenly transferred to parts unknown. Navy Lieutenant Commander Thomas Morrow, considered by many to be too unreliable to keep the secret, was sent to Vietnam, where he performed as a fighter pilot outstandingly, but with tragic result.
This discovery and later verification of four mysterious objects located in the waters around the United States initiated an urgent agenda to determine what and why they were there. Although attempts were made to try to determine if similar objects existed in other parts of the world, none were ever found.
Given the geo-political climate of that period, a nation could not simply fly over territorial waters of another and conduct the types of surveillance that was needed to detect such objects. Even the intelligence services of the United States were unable to gather any information that could help CSAC in discerning the existence of other similar objects in other parts of the world. If they existed, the countries that knew they had them did not share such knowledge.
Initially, funds were established to only deploy remote sensing devices on the ocean floor. The information they gathered was transmitted through cables to surface vessels, some disguised as ocean tugs or, even, lighthouses such as the Ambrose vessels.
Because of the enormity of what the objects or “Sentinels” as they came to be called could signify, this system of remote sensing was eventually replaced with manned stations located adjacent to the objects on the bottom. Called “Watch Stations,” the manned, pressurized habitats were commissioned by the Navy and staffed with its personnel.
Under the guise of exploring “inner space,” the government mounted a substantial monitoring program when initial efforts to identify their origin had proven fruitless. Construction of these ocean-bottom monitoring stations was facilitated by a secret fleet of ocean vessels outfitted with clandestine launching bays. The public disclosure of one of these vessels, the Glomar Explorer, had been unfortunate, but was put to rest as an attempt to raise sunken Soviet submarines. The ruse was quickly accepted in the era of U.S.-Soviet confrontation called the Cold War.