by Trey Russell

Created on: May 27, 2007

"The Orb"

Jason carefully appraised the object. To his left stood Gerald, dressed in suit and tie. All in grey, black dress shoes completed Gerald's spotless outfit. Jason took a long draw of the dry, sterile air. The whole notion of sterilized air always left him a bit queasy about the un-sterilized air outside of his lab. The walls were sparkling white, interrupted at uneven intervals with cabinets jam-packed with lab equipment familiar to any college professor. Rarer instruments, whose functions are obscure, extended from the ceiling towards steel countertops. A door with no window is set to his right. Beyond that door lay things only the privileged few would ever see. Jason took pride in his work, and joy as well, for his job was far better than even the myriad he had dreamed of in his childhood. The classification of the unknown filled him with the same exhilaration and sense of accomplishment as he imagined a soccer player might feel after winning the World Cup. Each descriptive tag placed upon an item in that room was as golden to him as his 8th grade Spelling Bee trophy, as worthy of merit as his Doctoral Dissertation (which are, he reminded himself, nothing shabby). His hunch told him that this new piece could prove to be his springboard to a multi-million dollar grant. A quick glance away from the object reminded him that his last grant was beginning to wear thin.

"Where did you say they found this thing, Gerald?"

"Says New Mexico," replied Gerald after a moment. Foreseeing future requests, he continued to scan the file. The super-thin paper made a slight rasp as Gerald turned each page. Glancing up occasionally, he added, "Well, Jason, seems it was found pretty deep - 200 ft through solid bedrock, to be precise. Preliminary analysis says this is no obvious forgery which means..." He paused before continuing, "Which means that some of the Native Americans were doing more than we thought back in 2000 B.C. Well, either that or-"

"Aliens." interrupted Jason. Turning his gaze to Gerald he asked, "So, good friend and brother, how did you score a find of this magnitude for a low level government scientist like me? Considering that this dates 800 years before the earliest known alien artifact, the thing is just plain remarkable."

Straightening his back, Gerald rejoined, "Well, junior, just had to pull a few strings I've been cultivating over the years. I may not be a scientific genius, but political power isn't anything to scoff at." They laughed. "On the

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