The Well

By Danlen James

Jack Phylbin and Ted Rankin begin an unexpected adventure when they go spelunking in an old water well on Jack's ranch that suddenly went dry.

Their lives are forever changed.

What they find when they enter the well, will affect them, and all of mankind, as some of what they discover is revealed to the world. The age-old question of "Are we alone?" is finally answered.

But there are those who would use the discoveries for their own gain & power, and those who would keep the news from ever going public.

Along the way, they meet treachery, and deceit, but also make new and powerful friends, and bring others into life changing adventures.

And, there are more adventures ahead for them!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Danlen James
• Release date: Aug 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301289240

Danlen James

10+ years spent in the broadcasting field, as an engineer, and announcer. MANY years spent in various electronics fields- manufacturing, installation and service, and design, and tech support.An avid sci-fi fan since the age of 8 (don't ask how many years ago THAT was).Have always enjoyed working with my hands.Computer nerd.

Book preview

Chapter 1:

Jack Phylbin owns a large 7,000 acre cattle ranch in western New Mexico. By any accounting, it’s quite successful. He inherited it from his father when he was 18. He’s worked the ranch, along with his dad’s cowhands, since he was eight years old, and knows his way around cattle and ranching.

A lot of the land on the ranch is mountainous. What’s left is a desert with scrub grass, where there’s any at all, and hard packed ground. A few cacti are scattered over the land. Some areas are irrigated and produce lush grasses for the cattle.

Jack has a natural ability for business decisions, and the ranch pretty much runs itself, with the help of his trusted cowhands and other employees. And each employee shares in the success of the ranch through a profit-sharing plan. It’s to their advantage to make sure things go smoothly. They are well paid and very loyal to Jack - at least most of them are.

At 29 years of age, Jack is tall and lean, 6'1" and a trim 180lbs. His curly dark brown hair matches his deep brown eyes. He looks like the cowboy he really is, in his old jeans and denim shirt, beat-up cowboy hat, and well-worn boots. He loves working outdoors and working with his hands. Even though his ranch hands handle most of the work, Jack can usually find something that just has to be done by him.

His one passion though, when he has time for it, is spelunking. He loves to explore the caves on his property, and any others he can gain access to.

Theodore ‘Ted’ Rankin is Jack’s best friend. He and Ted grew up together on the ranch. Ted is a year older than Jack, and at 30, he’s as trim and fit as Jack is. At 6'2" and 210lbs, he could also pass for a cowboy, except for his hands. He doesn’t have the calluses a real cowboy would have. His light brown hair, normally worn in a crew cut, just about matches the color of his eyes, which is a brown coffee-with-cream color. He also favors rugged clothing that will take the abuse of the outdoors and exploring caves, since he also shares Jack’s addiction to caving.

He’s also Jack’s business manager. Jack had promoted him to that position some years before, and never regretted doing it. Ted has a talent for business decisions.

As time went on, they were able to devote more time to spelunking. As a child, he and Ted would visit the caves and old mines on his spread, as well as those within easy driving distance. They loved getting into the ground and traveling the tunnels and underground chambers they discovered. A number of the caves had Indian paintings in them, along with some artifacts. They never tired of their passion.

Over the years they had many close calls. Cave-ins on several occasions had nearly cost one or the other of them their life. On those occasions, they had relied on each other to get out of the predicament. Regardless of these threats to their lives, they continued to enjoy their hobby.

The Well:

There was an old stone-walled well on the ranch, thought to have been dug by some ancient Indian tribe now long forgotten. It had been there when Jack’s great-grandfather bought the ranch in the late 1890s, and had been there as long as anyone could remember even before that.

The water from it was always pure and sweet. It never seemed to be affected by the droughts that the area suffered, and always had water in it – until after the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. On October 19, 1989, two days after the earthquake hit, the well went completely dry. It looked like the bottom had, literally, fallen out of it. All that could be seen by shining a spotlight down it was a dark abyss. The bottom couldn’t be seen at all.

Some weeks later, Jack and Ted decide they need to investigate the well. They wonder if the bottom has collapsed into a cavern that might have been located below it. And, since it had been hand-dug, it was wide enough to descend.

After breakfast early one fall morning, they left the old ranch house. Built in 1910, it was beginning to show some age, though it had been well cared for by Jack’s family since it was built. It’s two stories high, with a tin roof and well-weathered clapboard siding, which at the moment needed new paint. It had housed three generations of Jack’s family.

Close by was a still functional metal-frame windmill, which pumped water into a large cistern used by the ranch for their potable water needs. An electric pump was also used to supplement the windmill.

The sky was clear and bright blue. Not a cloud was visible. The temperature was already climbing after the cold desert night.

As they walk out of the old ranch house, Jack says, Hey Ted, this seems like a good day to try out that old well. We’ve been talking about it since it went dry. Whadaya say?

Ted scratches his head, thinks for a moment and says, Might as well. There’s nothin’ really pressin’ on today’s agenda. Let’s go for it.

Eager to investigate the old well and already wearing old jeans and faded work shirts, they don’t bother to change cloths as they head for the shed where they store all their caving gear. Not sure what they’ll find, they’re nonetheless excited to begin a new adventure. It’d been several months since they’d been able to do any exploring.

Checking the batteries on their cave radios and throwing their gear in the back of Jack’s old pickup truck, they head out to the well.

Located in a grove of trees on the west side of the ranch, in an area of otherwise sparse vegetation, it almost looks like an oasis in the middle of a desert. It’s in stark contrast to the surrounding fields which have nothing but scrub grass and tumbleweed in them.

Removing their gear, they place their rigging over the stone wall surrounding the well mouth. Jack’s the first to enter. He descends to about a hundred feet, where he can see what was left of the bottom of the well. There’s still a trickle of water descending out of the rocks just above this point, but not enough to cause any problems with climbing. He welcomes the coolness of the air in the well. It’s quite a relief from the oppressing heat of the New Mexico sun, even this late in the year.

As Jack descends, Ted asks from the top of the well, Do the sides of the well appear to have any damage from the earthquake Jack?

Nope. I don’t see any cracks or dislodged stones from the sides. It appears to have weathered the quake well. I don’t see any reason to give up inspecting it, Ted.

As Jack reaches where the bottom of the old well had been, he calls up to Ted, It looks like the bottom really did drop out of the well. I still don’t see anything but rock walls though. It’s very strange. It looks like the well was once much deeper. I’m going to continue going down. Why don’t you go ahead and start down. It looks like we may have some rough areas to descend.

OK Jack. I’ll be headed down in a couple of minutes. You still can’t see the bottom, or anything opening off to the side?

Nope. Just more vertical wall. No way to tell yet what we’re headed into.

Ted preps his gear at the well head, double checks everything, and climbs over the well wall and begins to descend. As he looks down, he can see Jack’s head lamp far below him.

He calls down to him to let him know he’s in the well. I’m headed down now Jack. See anythin’ yet?

Not yet. Just more sheer wall. It’s funny though. It looks like it’s been dug by a machine. The walls below the old well bottom are smooth, very smooth. Almost like fused rock and soil. I’d say like a lava tube, but the material’s all wrong for that. We’ll have to be careful on these walls. I know it isn’t possible it was machine dug, but...

I’m at the bottom of the original well, Jack, and it really does look like it just fell out. Did you notice the broken ledge that the bottom appears to have been resting on? It goes all the way around the well opening in what appears to have been one piece. It’s the same thickness all the way around. It has a different texture from all the surrounding rock and soil. I think we need to take a small piece of it back with us and see if we can identify what kind of rock it is.

Yeah, I did notice that. I was kinda hoping you would too, without me saying anything. We’ll break off a piece when we head back up. I’m curious too.

Ted’s now only about 20 feet above Jack, and has been looking at the wall around them. It almost has a glazed look to it. He too wonders how it was done.

Suddenly, he calls to Jack, This looks like it was drilled by laser Jack! It looks like the soil and rock were fused by a high intensity beam of some type. The only thing I can think of that would do that is a laser. But how much power would it have had to do something like this? It boggles my mind just thinking about it. There simply has to be a natural explanation, but I can’t think of one.

He stops climbing and decides to try driving a piton into the wall. After four or five tries, he calls down to Jack and asks him to try it too.

Jack stops climbing and tries to drive one in. He tries again, and again. He can’t even see where he tried! There are no marks on the wall at all! He calls up to Ted, You couldn’t drive one in either, could you?

He hears Ted laugh, and say, Nope, couldn’t even make a mark on the wall. What is this stuff Jack?

After a few seconds, Jack replies, I don’t have any idea what it is. But I _am_ sure it has to be manmade. But I don’t even know of any modern technology that could do this. It seems we have a mystery on our hands Ted!

I’m about out of rope. And I don’t want to chance having to tie two ropes together to descend further. Let’s head back up, and think this out.

As they climb back up, they both stop to get a sample of the rock at the bottom of the well. They find a few small pieces already broken off the ledge, and try to get a few bigger pieces. But they discover they can’t break off any of it. They can’t even tell where they hammered it trying to break it. It appears that whatever caused the shelf to break, probably the earthquake, also caused a few small pieces to break free.

They’re silent as they reach the top, gather their gear together, and toss it in the back of the truck. They remain silent as they head back to the house.

Finally, Jack tells Ted, We don’t want to talk to anyone about this yet Ted. I’m not sure what we have here, but I don’t want other people investigating it until we know more, if even then. In the meantime, we’ll try to figure out what these chips are made of. I have a suspicion we’re in for a surprise.

The Adventure Begins:

Over the next few weeks, the affairs of the ranch keep both men busy.

Jack made a few trips into town to get additional supplies for the ranch, and more rope and climbing supplies for exploration of the old well.

When he returned from one of his supply trips, Tim Lofton, one of his cowhands, notices the new climbing supplies and makes a mental note of the fact.

Jack had hired Tim a few years before when he needed to add a couple of ranch hands. He’d been no trouble, and seemed to do his job OK.

In late October, Jack approaches Ted and asks, Hey Ted. When might you have some time to go caving again? I’m getting the bug and thought you might like to join me.

Ted suspects he plans to explore the well again. So he tells him, How about the middle of next week. I should have all my accountin’ chores for the month done by then, and nothin’ else pressin’ for a week or so.

OK, how about planning on heading out early Thursday morning then. Five AM OK? We can decide on the way where we’re going. I’ve got new rope and supplies. Those old ropes are getting a bit worn and I figured we’d just use them for backup.

Ted replies, Let’s do it! I can use the break and I guess you can too.

Early Thursday morning, with a fall nip definitely in the air, they both grab their climbing gear and toss it into the back of Jack’s truck, and head out the dusty road to the well. The sun is not quite over the horizon yet, and just a few wispy clouds in the otherwise clear blue sky.

Grinning, Jack asks Ted, I thought we might want to visit the well again. Is that OK with you?

Grinning himself, Ted replies Thought you’d never ask. I just kinda figured that’s where we’d go. After all, we do have a mystery on our hands that we just gotta investigate further.

OK Ted. If you’re sure that’s where you want to go, then that’s where we’ll go.

It just so happens that I have our cave radios with us. Thought they might come in handy, in case we wanted to explore the old well. Who knows? We might find a cave or cavern at the bottom

I’ve modified one of the radio receivers to work to trigger our ranch radio here in the truck. I figure we may be headed a long way down, and who knows how far out from the bottom, if there is a side passage. We’ll leave a relay radio at the bottom of the well, in case we get too far away to trigger the truck unit. That way, IF we need to, we can, hopefully, call for help.

Ted grins, and asks, Oh, and are you plannin’ to get us into trouble again?

Jack laughs and replies, One never knows! Besides, we haven’t had a REAL adventure for quite a while. And besides, you might be the one to get us into trouble this time! Both men laugh, and continue talking on the way to the well.

Once there, they lay out their climbing gear and inspect everything. Jack also lays out the VLF (Very Low Frequency) loop antenna for the cave radio and connects it to a radio. Then he connects the cave radio to the two-way radio in the truck.

He tells Ted, Our normal working channel will be ‘A’. Should we get ourselves into trouble, hit channel ‘B’ and yell for help. Hopefully, there will be someone in the office or close to the PA speaker outside to hear our call.

I really don’t want to have to reveal what we’re doing here, but we will if we need to. He