****
Bates had the whole Team explore the data cubes more fully. The Team could not help but be amazed at what they found. The cubes Barns stole from the Ra ship included mostly human works, but they also chronicled sporadic visits by the Ra on Earth over several millennia, including especially the last century.
Oddly the information was in the form of several prominent human languages which various members of the Team knew. "Perhaps the information is more highly valued in its human form," Barns speculated.
It turned out that the Ra had enormous influence on human history, all of it bad. How else could Rome fall? How could a Hitler rise to power? How could the cruel tyranny of communism last so long? How could senseless racial and ethnic hatred linger on in so many corners of the world? Who really sponsored world-wide terrorists? How could a race of supposedly intelligent beings wage wars against their fellow human beings and against their own environment? How could superstition be preferred over science? How could radical political and religious differences possibly be so strong that human progress again and again was halted in favor of ignorance and continuing misery?
Human nature itself was of course was the primary cause, but not the only one. In many instances the Ra stirred up trouble in order to slow human progress. At times the Ra had as many as a hundred secret agents on Earth. Ruthless Ra agents escalated dangerous situations, made false accusations, sponsored the irrational, and neutralized the sensible. They usually didn't themselves assume political leadership positions. Instead they preferred to manipulate events from behind the scenes. They were worse than the CIA. Sometimes of course, they were the CIA. The last few years had been very disappointing ones for the Ra, since despite their worst efforts humans had undeniably made progress.
"Look at Book 73 Chapter 22 Section 3," exclaimed Norma. "According to this, about half of Hitler's staff was actually Ra!”
"Ha!” exclaimed Bates. "Those thin, bat faced, sourpuss Nazi creeps! We should have known!”
"So much for racial purity," quipped Sandra. "But how about Section 6! The Japanese wouldn't have invaded China if it weren't for the Ra!”
"Look at all the American Ra in Chapter 20!” added Bates. “Guess who really started the Great Depression!”
Barns suddenly became goggle-eyed and open mouthed as he stared at his VISICOM screen.
"What did you find?" asked Bates.
"A sort of preface to much of the Books, I think. Look at Chapter 1 in Book 73.
Bates found it quickly and read it aloud to the group. 'This latest and most ambitious mission, which we begin in Earth year 1913, is designed to again obstruct further human progress, after numerous past failures over many centuries, the most troubling being the shocking resurgence of the human intellect and spirit known by humans as the Renaissance. Operations are bounded, however, and extreme caution is expected to be required, given the increased frequency of visitation by others, in particular the Haspa.”
"Wow!” exclaimed Mel. "Aliens have been around for a really long time! The whole last century is just considered to be their most recent mission! Their activity seemed to actually decrease over the last century, though, or at least they seemed to get more cautious."
"The poor dears; I hope they got some leave to go home once and a while. But who are the Haspa?" asked Janet.
"I found information on them too, Mom," said Don. "Book 74 Charter 5. It looks like they have studied Earth animal and human biology and psychology for a long time. Yuck! Here's a picture of one!”
Bates and Mel looked over his shoulder. The alien was a small, thin, gray skinned creature with huge head and big slanted eyes; to Mel it looked exactly like the one he had met a decade ago. "Hey, I think I know that guy!” he said.
Don continued to report on what he had found. "In summary, this indicates that until about ten years ago, the Haspa visited Earth frequently. At that point, according to this, they completed their mission."
Bates whistled. "Any more on the Haspa?" he asked.
"Not in this section," replied Don.
"OK, good work, Son! But now let's find our visitors from afar. Focus on aliens now everyone, with the exception of Janet, Mel, and Hank. Janet and Mel, I want you to figure out exactly when and where Dannos is coming, and when and how this Bus might intercept it. We might have actually less than five and a half days to stop it! Hank, you're in charge of security. Maybe you and Milo should look around a little."
Hank left the Bus with his assault rifle. He looked relieved to get away from the scientists and their VISICOMs, and back to his own profession. Milo was of course happy to join him for a walk outside.
As they looked through the data Norma suddenly laughed, and continued laughing.
That was quite unusual for the serious minded inventor, thought Bates. "OK Norma," he said, "what have you found that's so amusing?”
"Well, I've been studying the index to the cubes," she explained. "At one point I saw a reference to ghosts. So I asked the VISICOM to search for sections on ghosts. Guess what: there are hundreds! So I tried witches, and giants, and dwarves, and even dragons. Guess what: there are entries on all of them too! The only thing I can figure out is that the Ra have trouble differentiating between human fiction and reality. They have apparently wasted a lot of time on fiction!”
“Maybe they don’t have fiction in their culture,” suggested Bates.
"We're wasting our time on past history!” complained Barns. "I admit that under a different setting this would be fascinating material, ladies and gentlemen, but regardless how or why Dannos was pointed our way, or what strange interests or effects the Ra may have had with regard to our culture, we have less than six days left to live! I suggest that we file these cubes away and forget about them until after Christmas. Then the survivors of this holocaust can study them at their leisure, if there is any practical value to ever doing so."
"And you may be right," acknowledged Bates. "We all know that this is a long shot. But we're going to keep trying until tomorrow morning when my time is up. That was the deal. So let’s find those aliens!”
"I think aliens might not be the answer, Father," said Elizabeth.
Bates smiled, as he had been doing every time one of the kids called him Dad or Father. At least he had gotten over fainting. "What do you mean, Elizabeth?" he asked.
"Well, ghosts could also be considered to be visitors from afar, couldn't they?”
"That's not the point," interjected Barns. "Ghosts don't exist. And even if they did, they'd be irrelevant.”
"Well I happen to know that they do exist," replied Elizabeth.
"You can't prove it!” asserted Barns.
"Can so!” she replied emphatically. "And it shouldn't take more than an hour or two.”
An argument ensued.
"Hold it!” said Bates. "She just might be right. Maybe Jigs' visitors from afar aren't space aliens. But Elizabeth, exactly what shouldn't take more than an hour or two?"
"Well," she said, "it should be easy enough to contact the spirit world, if you can find a place where it is active. According to the DOD data cube you made from the safe contents, there's a documented case of an ancient Indian spirit being contacted at a site only a hundred kilometers from here. The medium that researched the site may still live in the area. We just need to get there and have him or her try it again.”
"That would be time wasted," objected Barns.
"Not really," answered Bates. "We can still be researching the cubes as we travel. And anyway, it's still my time, and I say we go."
It was settled. They packed up and brought the Bus engines up to minimum motive power. Soon they were back on the highway and heading Northeast towards Apache country. Elizabeth tried to contact the ghost researcher on the COM but was unsuccessful, though the on-line COM directory at least provided his address.
"Wait a minute," said Barns. "What if this researcher isn't available? And also, shouldn't we have our own psychic medium to hel
p do this!”
"You've got one!” stated Elizabeth proudly. "Me!”
Bates looked at his daughter in disbelief, but Janet was nodding her head in conformation. "It has been her hobby for years.”
Bates clearly had a lot to learn about his long-lost kids.