4 [BEFORE]

The terrible roads in Mauritania made any trip laborious, but this trip had been Ibrahim’s worst ever. In West Africa, one became used to the habit of drivers frequently stopping in the middle of the narrow road, blocking up traffic for no real reason. Today, the journey from Ouadanes’ was unusually bad, with many standing vehicles stopped in the road, people gathered in small groups, all staring up at the sky. Some were pointing and yelling. Yes, today’s weather was delivering a strong confluence of winds and very unusual cloud formations, but really, now…

As Ibrihim pulled into camp, his colleague Hassan rushed out of the wind-whipped desert tent, yelling and pointing eastward. In the glow of the setting western sun, he held a small instrument above his head, it’s display red-barred and squealing loudly, like some abused pet.

Ibrahim sprinted against the howling winds towards Hassan. At the University, fellow geologists joked how Hassan had become as stoic as this odd rock formation he so intently studied. This un-explained 40 Kilometer dent in the earth called the Eye of the Sahara had become a less-than-desirable focus for any academic study because… well, it was silently just there.

Now, a frantic Hassan was waving his arms and yelling like the crazed nomad traders that frequently stopped at this desert location.

This must be something important. Hassan has found something.

Ibrihim was pushing against the now-raging winds as he ran towards the wide-eyed Hassan… multiple instruments in the tent were chaotically alarming. Yelling back in the local Bamanankan speech “Mun! Mun! (what… what?)” … now standing next to Hassan, Ibrahim could feel an alarming rumble from the ground, even thru the sand… almost a groaning… this is new!

Looking over the gaping and beloved geologic oddity here on the Adrar Plateau, Hassan yelled at the small hand-held display, “The anomaly is resonating… dispersing Anti-protons? Impossible!” They had studies the ‘Eye’ for eight years, always as quiet as a tomb…

Hassan turned and brought his face square into Ibrahim’s at a breath’s distance, crying out in mixed English and West African French,  “Guelb er Richat se réveiller… Guelb er Richat chante… the Eye of the Sahara awakens… it awakens… and sings!… resonance at 24.115 x 1043 Hz… against the Aether…”

It was then that Ibrahim began to notice that all the colours in his field of view were beginning to dance and shift. Ibrahim, a devout non-drinker, wondered if this is what it’s like to be drunk in the middle of the day.

crisbaj

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