“But Von Seeckt did recover the Great Pyramid nuke in 1941,” Turcotte noted. “So we not only know the Airlia had nukes, we know they left at least one sitting around.”
Quinn continued his story. “Others have said it was a black hole striking the planet. Or a small piece of antimatter. Even before the discovery of the Airlia there were those who did say the explosion must have had an extraterrestrial cause — the nuclear power plant of a spacecraft malfunctioning.”
“The mothership wasn’t powered by a nuclear reactor,” Turcotte said. “The UNAOC scientists don’t know what the ruby sphere was exactly, but it wasn’t nuclear. Although as you said, when it exploded it certainly acted like a nuke.”
“The biggest problem with knowing what happened at Tunguska — and no insult to you or your country, Mr. Yakov — is that it took nineteen years before the site was actually first examined,” Quinn said. “A Soviet scientist named Leonid Kulik was the one who organized the first expedition. He’d heard rumors of the explosion from the local tribesmen, the Tungus, and that they had closed off the area, saying it was ‘holy’ land and they were afraid of further enraging the gods who had caused the explosion.”
“Primitive thinking, or perhaps they knew more than the scientists,” Turcotte noted.
Yakov agreed. “I learned traveling around the world to trust in the words of the so-called primitive people.”
Quinn went on. “With backing from the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Kulik and his party traveled to the area in 1927. Kulik discovered the epicenter of the blast by the straightforward method of working his way in against the knocked-down trees.
“He also discovered several cleared oval areas that he assumed to be old meteorite craters that had been filled in by time. However, not only were those ‘old’ meteorites never discovered, they never found any remains of the large meteorite everyone assumes caused the 1908 blast.
“There are several curious aspects to Tunguska,” Quinn said. “One is very strange. It was discovered not long ago that there was accelerated growth of biomass material in the area surrounding the epicenter and that accelerated growth has continued to this day. There have also been a number of mutations of animal and plant life in the area. Among the local Tungus tribesmen, it was found that their Rh blood factor is abnormal, even now, almost a hundred years later.”
“What could affect life like that?” Turcotte asked.
“Perhaps radiation,” Quinn said. “But even at nuclear test sites, there haven’t been biological data collected like these. Perhaps,” he ventured, “the Swarm bodies did have some alien-type viruses and they infected the local area — and the Germans when they arrived years later. Or, maybe the craft itself or the weapon used against it propagated a field that affected bioforms.
“The common explanation for the Tunguska event has always been that it was caused by an asteroid,” Quinn continued. “However, we run into the problem of not being able to find the crater and asteroid fragments that would be necessary parts of such an occurrence. Making that explanation even more difficult is that aerial surveys in the 1960s discovered four smaller blast epicenters within the confines of the larger one. That also backs up the claims of witnesses that there were multiple explosions. So what caused the smaller blasts?”
“Secondary explosions from a craft,” Turcotte suggested.
“Perhaps,” Quinn said. “But what caused the primary explosion?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Another, bigger expedition was sent to Tunguska after the Second World War. They found signs of an airburst nuclear explosion, now that they knew what the results of such an event would be. Using the data, the men with their slide rules again estimated the equivalent of a twenty-megaton blast. One thousand times the size of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. You can be assured that generated some interest.
“The Soviet scientists also found traces of the radioactive isotope cesium 137 in the ring structure of trees on the outskirts of the blast that corresponds to the year of the explosion. And still no sign of a crater.
“One of the scientists on the expedition — Gregori Kazakov — said that the explosion at Tunguska had definitely been nuclear and he suggested that it was caused by the nuclear engine of a spacecraft exploding. He said that traces of metallic iron found in the area were fragments from the skin of the spaceship. Other metals found there were from the ship’s wiring. He based his theory on the fact that a spacecraft exploding in midair would leave no crater and form the circular effect of blown-down trees that was noted in the area. They also found traces of metal that they couldn’t identify.”
Turcotte waited, the information coming full circle as Quinn continued.
“Then an aerodynamics expert carefully examined eyewitness reports of the object that had been moving across the sky and concluded that it had to have been under intelligent control. Based on the various reports, the object slowed to around.6 kilometers per second prior to explosion, indicating an attempt to perhaps land — a meteorite would have continued at the same terminal velocity to detonation. He laid out the route according to the various accounts and it appeared — if the accounts from 1908 were to be believed — that the object actually made a significant course change prior to exploding, definitely ruling out an uncontrolled object.
“With this new information the team decided to expand the resources and dig. The thought is that whatever exploded fell to the ground, melted the permafrost, then sank into melted ground. Then the permafrost refroze, effectively burying — and preserving — whatever was there. However, the expedition that went after World War II did extensive digging and found nothing.”
“Because the Nazis had already recovered whatever was there.” Turcotte supplied the missing piece. “It appears so.” Quinn said.
“How were the Germans able to operate so freely in Russia?” Turcotte asked.
“Ah, the 1930s.” Yakov’s voice sounded sad. “A black time for my country. If you remember history, Stalin had signed a nonaggression pact with Hitler that decade. A most foolish decision given subsequent events.”
“Could there be more to that treaty than meets the eye?” Turcotte suggested. “Perhaps the influence of either the Mission or the Ones Who Wait?”
“That is possible with every event in man’s history,” Yakov said. “Who knows even who Stalin was? Single-handedly he almost destroyed my country. We still struggle to recover from all the policies he enacted; and the millions he killed, they will never be replaced. What he did made no sense.”
“Major Quinn, what did the Germans find?” Turcotte asked. “How intact was the wreckage?” “It was in many pieces,” Quinn said. “The Germans took out as much as they could uncover.” “And it wasn’t a Talon, bouncer, or mothership?”
“Apparently not.”
“Well, what was it exactly? What kind of ship does the Swarm have?” Turcotte asked.
“The Germans never really determined the structure of the craft,” Quinn said. “They didn’t have enough to work with.”
“What was Swarm doing on Earth in 1908?” Yakov asked. “That’s a very good question,” Quinn said.
“An even better question,” Turcotte said, “is how did Tesla destroy their ship in 1908?”
“At the same time as the Tunguska explosion,” Quinn said, “the most significant event occurring in the news was Admiral Peary’s expedition to the North Pole. There are some who speculate that Tesla, desiring to gain publicity for his new device, wanted to send a transmission through the Earth to Peary’s camp, where it would light the entire area.”