On 13 Oct 1996, DON JUNEAU wrote:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're expecting to cut away momentarily to a live feed from Christien Amanpour in Saudi Arabia, at the site of one of the most momentous and inexplicable events of the Twentieth Century.

"For the past year and a half, excavations have been underway at an archeological dig in the Empty Quarter, the 'Roba al Khaliyeh', aimed at uncovering the fabled lost city of Irem, known as the 'City of Pillars.'

"Forty-eight hours ago, communications ceased with both the scientists and the media covering the story; Saudi military and counter-terrorist forces were immediately scrambled into the area, and, as reported previously, found no traces of life - the two hundred and fifteen people known to have been present had seemingly vanished.

"Two hours ago, our own Special Foreign Correspondent, Christien Amanpour, was summoned to the Saudi military headquarters complex in Riyadh, and has been granted special dispensation to report, live and uncensored, from the Irem site. Apparently, the Saudi government has discovered something so momentous, and I quote from the official statement, 'that, in comparison, the splitting of the atom pales into insignifigance.'

"What? I've just gotten word that the feed is live, and we here at Atlanta Center will watch along with you..."

"Bob, this is Christien Amanpour, reporting live from Irem, Saudi Arabia, can you hear me?"

"Yes, yes, we can hear you."

"Bob, directly behind me is the center of the excavations... it looks to be a large, central plaza or square, surrounded by some of the towers that are a fixture here. The Saudi forces working there are trying to uncover one of the access points to the underground cavern, the gigantic cave beneath the city, that was announced as being discovered only days before contact was lost.

"As you can see, most of the scaffolding-supported coverings, placed there to keep the elements from damaging artifacts as they are unearthed, have collapsed.. from here, it almost looks as though, yes, some of the crushed and damaged areas do lead right up to the tower bases, but they're still standing. There's no way that the towers could have fallen, and been replaced in undamaged condition...

"Major Khalid is motioning us down, it looks like they may have gotten one of the accesses clear.. yes, I can see troops heading down now. We can also see under some of the scaffolding, and the large, star-shaped pattern of stones, covering the entire plaza, we can see that it's still relatively undamaged.

"Major! What can you tell us so far?"

"At this time, we have not yet discovered any of the personnel, or clues to their disappearance. From the final reports in their computers or papers, it seems that twenty or thirty of them, Saudis and foreigners alike, but not all, were insistent upon repairing the stone pattern - as best we can tell, they claimed a discovery was immiment, and refused to work on their assigned projects. We don't know what happened, if this is related, or if something else was the cause."

"This sounds a lot like the scientist-mutiny in Antarctica, last month. Could it be related to the work, or stress from the relative isolation?"

"I don't know, I'll have to leave that up to the psychiatrists. Here, this way, we've finally opened the passageway, and we suspect that the missing personnel may be in the cavern - they may have been trapped by the surface collapses, there has been major localised seismic activity.. we're not sure, but Riyadh never registered any tremblors, it may be a local phenomena."

"As we continue, may I ask for details concerning the tremendously important discovery? Before we left Riyadh, all we were told at the press conference was that some..."

"No, all I know right now is what you were told - the imams and mullahs, our religious leaders, they discussed this with the government, but it has something to do with Irem, and events dating back before the time of Mohammed.. here, there is the passage."

"Bob, we're heading down a steep slope now, and I don't think the camera can see much, but there's carvings, more pictographs, all the way down.. I'm not sure, they don't seem to resemble anything I've seen before. Wait, we're leveling out here.. according the the map of the site, this should be, yes this is the 'balcony', overlooking the entire cavern."

"Yes, bring the camera over, we need the lights!"

"It looks, we can't see much here, I don't know what's showing up on your screens, but it's very dark, we can't see much.. the power to the lights the scientists installed, either the power is out or the lights have failed, but it looks as though they're almost repaired.

"Oh my god."

"Christien, describe to use what you're seeing, we seem to be having some video difficulties. The cavern appears to be lit, but it's not showing up, it looks like a vast pale wall, about twenty feet off... "

"Bob, I don't, I.. I don't know how to say this, but they were right, this is.. it's indescribable. This cavern, the vast cave below the sands of the Arabian Desert, it's been mapped and measured to be over three and half kilometers long, and nearly six hundred meters high at the center.. it's filled, it's.. we can see it, I don't know if you can, the.. the thing, this vast bulk, it doesn't quite reach the walls and ceiling, it resembles an animal in a burrow.

"The stench, we can barely breathe here, it's incredible. This huge thing, it's oozing fluid, slow drips and rivulets, we can see it flow from here.. what? Over there! Yes!

"Bob, I hope you can see this... I pray the entire world can see this, the unbelievable sight here below Irem! This, this giant worm, that's what it looks like, it's slowly moving.. the end closest to us, the soldiers, they're running but the tip is swinging up towards us! There's, there's a huge opening, large enough to swallow a truck, that's the only feature... Major! MAJOR! Stop, don't.."

"We are doomed.. Allah cannot protect us."

"Christien!"

"Bob! Major Khalid's just shot himself! What's happening, what.. Dave, no, over there! The HEAD!!!!"

"Ladies and gentlemen.. we've lost the signal. I, we, we don't know what's happening now, we're trying to re-establish contact.. the last thing we saw here, I think you saw it, was.. I don't know, this giant white blob. It was flying, maybe? Flying towards the camera.. we'll keep you updated on this breaking story as it develops... "

More than 12 hours have passed since contact was lost with the military task force sent by the Saudi Arabian government to investigate the earlier disappearance of scientists and media personnel at the Irem dig site in Ash Shishur, Oman. Among the missing are Major Khalid bin Muhammed al-Akbar, leader of the Saudi task force, and our own CNN Special Foreign Correspondent Christien Amanpour. Attempts to communicate with the Irem site and the neighboring communities have all failed.

Bedouin refugees from the Ash Shishur area began pouring into the Oman port city of Salalah less than an hour ago. They are unable to give a coherent account of the situation at Ash Shishur, but reports of attacks by "giant birds" and a "great white worm" are circulating among the refugees. The Royal Oman Police in Salalah has mobilized to handle the sudden influx of refugees, direct traffic in the now-crowded streets and establish check points on all roads leading north out of the city.

In an unusual display of cooperation between Oman and Saudi Arabia, His Royal Highness the Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al-Said of Oman has requested military assistance from His Majesty King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia to stabilize the situation around Ash Shishur. We now understand that the Saudi task force led by Major Khalid was dispatched to the Irem site at the express invitation of the Oman government.

Further reports indicate that both the Omani and Saudi armed forces are being mobilized for action. We also understand that HRH Sultan Qaboos will be arriving shortly in Salalah to take personal charge of Omani military operations in the area.

Refugee reports of an enormous "glowing cloud" spreading over the Ash Shishur area have now been confirmed by satellite imagery. From the photographs relayed back to Earth, the cloud appears to be between 90- and 100,000 feet high, over 100 miles in diameter and slowly spreading outward in all directions. Geologists at the U.S. Geologic Survey studying the cloud are puzzled.

"It appears to be the eruptive plume from a volcano," one USGS spokesperson said. "The 'glowing cloud' could be one or more pyroclastic flows as we saw at Mt. St. Helens...but this cloud appears to be stable, with no 'trail' of ash fallout downwind...(it is) also unusual in its height--indicating an exceptionally violent eruption--its symmetry and in the fact that it is spreading uniformly outward." This same spokesperson also noted that volcanic activity on the Arabian Peninsula is exceptionally rare.

It is expected that reconnaisance overflights by both Saudi and Omani military aircraft will provide a clearer picture of the Ash Shishur site and the 'glowing cloud' soon. Scientists worldwide are following these developments with keen interest...

In other news, the Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo has issued a "Tidal Wave Warning" for the entire Pacific Basin. Earlier today, sesmiographs at the University detected a series of unusually powerful undersea earthquakes originating on the ocean floor some 140 miles northeast of Pohnpei, capital island of the Federated States of Micronesia. These earthquakes measured in excess of 9 on the Richter Scale.

The Institute is urging immediate emergency measures for all Pacific islands and coastal nations bordering the Pacific as a tidal wave up to 100 feet high may have been generated by the earthquakes. Japanese authorities have already begun evacuating families to higher ground from all low-lying coastal areas and provinces.

The US Geologic Survey in Menlo Park, CA, has confirmed the Japanese findings."

RETURN TO THE STACKS THROUGH THE GLOWING SIGIL, below

This page revised 28 August 2007