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  Afterward, David took Colleen’s arm and they strolled out onto the River Terrace. The view of the Potomac River, Georgetown University, the National Cathedral, Theodore Roosevelt Island and the lights on the Francis Scott Key Bridge was impressive. The moon was almost full and in this most romantic setting, David and Colleen kissed. Again he felt as though someone was watching, but perhaps it was only due to the heightened security after the 9/11 incidents. They were, after all, in the Nation’s Capitol and at a landmark building.

  They lingered a while longer, then found a cab back to the hotel. In the morning, they would go to the National Archive Building and begin their search.

  Both tired they soon fell asleep.

  Rising to the early wake-up call, they showered, dressed and enjoyed a continental breakfast poolside before heading for the National Archives.

  Chapter 16

  Washington, DC, National Archive Building: Friday, June 15.

  The National Archive Building at 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW with its Greek style architecture appeared somewhat Parthenon like, with its columns and carvings. On the east wall was the inscription: “This building holds the records of our national life and symbolizes our faith in the permanence of our national institutions.”

  Once inside, Colleen and David registered and received their Researcher Identification Cards, went to the FOIA research room and requested information on the Philadelphia Experiment. Earlier they decided this would be a good place to begin, as it would lead them to other areas. The information was stored in boxes and required extensive studying since it contained items from a number of different sources.

  Initially, a lot of information was available on the subject. The Philadelphia Experiment was an alleged experiment code named Project Rainbow, done on October 28, 1943. According to the story, the destroyer, USS Eldridge became invisible, dematerialized and teleported from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Norfolk, Virginia and back again to the Philadelphia Navel Yard. The ship supposedly traveled over four hundred miles in a brief time span, something not possible by a ship the size of the USS Eldridge. The experiment allegedly had some very serious side effects such as making sailors invisible, causing them to go mad and infusing parts of their bodies into the ship itself. With such tragic results, the Navy abandoned exploring this new technology. Dr. Renaldo allegedly performed the Experiment as an application of Einstein’s Unified Field Theory, which demonstrates a connection between gravity and electromagnetism and provides the ability to do space-time warping.

  The Experiment has been completely denied by the Department of the Navy and they propose that another experiment involving the degaussing of ships to make them invisible to magnetic torpedoes is, in fact, the root of the legend.

  What became so interesting is there are many different sources confirming the reality of this actually happening. There are accounts of families of the USS Eldridge’s crew members being told their loved ones had died that night. There is also the story of the entire balance of the crew, who were not reported dead, receiving discharges from the Navy for being “mentally unfit.”

  “Here is an interesting story,” exclaimed Colleen, “about a Doctor Mellon, a Harvard University Professor who was researching the whole affair and wrote about it in a book called The Case for Time Space Warping.”

  “Even more interesting are the accounts from eye witnesses who were on the dock when the experiment was performed.”

  “Do you think they really did this?”

  “It’s possible they tried something and it went astray. There is some information about it in Mellon’s book and he tried to get the public to put pressure on the government to demand more research into Einstein’s Unified Field Theory. Some time after Mellon’s book was published; he received a series of letters from a Carlos Allen. The letters were written in several colors of ink and many words were randomly capitalized for no apparent reason. Mr. Allen claimed to have been at the Norfolk Docks and witnessed the disappearance of the USS Eldridge during the Philadelphia Experiment. He was very angry with Dr. Mellon for attempting to put pressure on the government to do additional research into Einstein’s Unified Field Theory because of the horrible side effects it had on human beings during the Philadelphia Experiment. According to Allen, the Experiment had devastated the crewmembers that were involved. The men became stuck between dimensions, as it were and some were unable to find their way back to the physical plane. In the worst cases, some actually burst into flames, while others described the in-between feeling as being stuck in a seemingly eternal slowness and not knowing how to escape. From this, Allen concluded, ‘It seemed the men were somehow transported into a higher frequency and were going too fast for Earth, while their physical bodies were here in what seemed to them to be like moving through molasses. Therefore, what to us might have been only a minute might be the equivalent of a week to them.’ It appears that what started out as an experiment in stealth turned out to be a multidimensional disaster.”

  “If this actually happened, I can see why the government would want to cover it up, but I wonder if it has anything to do with the old Aratusa.”

  “Well, if you believe what Allen wrote, one of his letters says, ‘these crew members were never aware of time as we are aware of it.’ Apparently it took six months and over five million dollars worth of special electronic equipment along with a special ship berth to rectify the problem of the crew’s time awareness.”

  “David, here is an article from a Philadelphia newspaper dated October 1943 entitled Strange circumstances surround tavern brawl. It says the police responded to a call about a tavern brawl near the Navy’s docks. According to a pair of very nervous witnesses, the Shore Patrol arrived first and cleared the place out, but not before two of the sailors did a disappearing act and somehow vanished. Apparently they were wearing a device on their belts which enabled them to do this.”

  “In truth, this sounds a bit like some sci-fi mumbo jumbo.”

  “I have to agree with you, Einstein was into some pretty exotic thinking back then and although it’s said he never finished his Unified Field Theory, Allen claims he did finish it and later retracted it as having horrible consequences on human beings. He goes on to say a Dr. Rossmoor asserts privately it was complete, but man is not yet ready for it and wouldn’t be for a long time.”

  “All right Colleen, this is all very interesting, but what does it have to do with the samples that we inspected from the Aratusa?”

  “I don’t know, but perhaps if we look into the Aratusa and the USS Morgan we will find something.”

  “To do that, we have to return this research material and request information on the two ships. Do you have your notes and entries in your notebook complete?”

  “I’m ready.”

  They went back to the bins, returned the boxes of information and approached the desk in the FOIA research room to request information on the two ships.

  “May we see what information you have on two old ships? One of them is called the Aratusa and the other the USS Morgan.”

  The attendant smiled, then went to her computer to find the location of the information. A frown crossed over her face and she said, “Why do you want to see this?”

  “Aren’t we entitled to view it under the Freedom of Information Act?”

  “Yes, but there was a one week hold put on it and it looks like it is going to be re-classified again, but the hold expired two days ago. Apparently, they did not extend it so I guess it’s all right for you to see it. Here is the card and location. That’s interesting; they are both in the same box.”

  After she gave them the location, she entered additional notes and information into her computer.

  They retrieved the box and took it into the research room. It contained notes on the Aratusa and its original owner, Morgan Sterling III from Newport, RI. Paperwork on its conscription by the Navy
on March 22, 1942 as a troop carrier was also included. It was re-named the USS Morgan on April15, 1945 presumably because of the original owner’s first name.

  “I wonder why they waited three years to do that.”

  “David, here is an article that says the Aratusa was reported lost at sea on December 10, 1944 with all hands lost. It was participating in a top-secret experiment called Project Bright Star. The paperwork says the Navy located it floating several hundred miles south of Bermuda on April 14, 1945. Most of the crew were dead. Those that were still alive had major problems. A Navy tug towed the ship to the Philadelphia Naval Yard and the Department of the Navy decided to maintain the story that the Aratusa was lost at sea. They quickly renamed the Aratusa the USS Morgan and consigned it as a research vessel to the Philadelphia Naval Yard. It was to go through something called ‘Dimensional Pulse Rephrasing of Frequency’.”

  “What in the world is that?” questioned David.

  “It doesn’t say what it is, just that the rephrasing was partially successful on the ship itself, but far less successful on the remaining crew members. It also says that the USS Morgan was to remain in the Philadelphia Naval Yard for continued research.”

  “Well, sounds like they tried to repeat the Philadelphia Experiment a second time and lost the ship for several months. The crew was probably incapacitated and may even have starved to death owing to the fact they did not find it for over four months.”

  “If all of this took place in April of 1945, the Navy was also very much occupied with the end of the war, which came only a few months later. It is possible the people who were responsible for the experiments were released from the Navy at the end of the war and the ship just floundered in the shipyard over the next sixty some years,” theorized Colleen.

  Digging through papers, David found a recently dated ‘Order to Scuttle,’ for the USS Morgan. Commander Robin Camp, Commanding Officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency, signed the order. It says the USS Morgan is to be sunk off the continental shelf for use as a fish sanctuary.

  “If it was to be sunk, how did it get to DeCosta Scrap Yard for dismantling?” asked David.

  “There is more. Here is a memo written by a Lieutenant JG Robert Calafano of the General Accounting Office. In it, he says there is an estimated savings of almost $825,000 to the Department of the Navy if the USS Morgan is scrapped at a local yard rather than being towed several hundred miles out to sea and sunk. Attached is an order to scrap the USS Morgan at DeCosta Scrap Yard rather than scuttle it. It’s dated after the Order to Scuttle. ”

  “It looks like one hand wasn’t telling the other what it’s doing. Lieutenant Calafano might have inadvertently done something to compromise what appears to have been an old cover-up.”

  “Do you think we could find anything on dimensional pulse rephrasing of frequencies in here, or perhaps Project Bright Star?”

  “Worth a try,” agreed David.

  They returned the information on the ships and went back to the FOIA desk. There was a different person than the one earlier, a younger athletic looking woman with intense eyes.

  “Do you have anything on Dimensional Pulse Rephrasing of Frequency or Project Bright Star?”

  “You did say, Dimensional Pulse Rephrasing of Frequency and Project Bright Star, is that correct?”

  “Yes”

  “I’m sorry that is classified information; is there anything else I could help you with?”

  “Are you sure, I mean you didn’t check did you?”

  “I said it’s classified!”

  David noticed the attendant made notes on a sheet of paper, folded it and put it into an envelope. She also entered information into her computer.

  “Will that be all sir?” she asked tersely.

  “Yes, thank you.”

  They left the building and David said to Colleen, “She wasn’t very friendly.”

  “I know, she didn’t even look in the computer and what was with all the notes she made and put into an envelope?”

  “I just think she was busy and kind of just blew us off. She may have known that it was classified anyway.”

  As they left the National Archive Building, the driver of a dark blue sedan across the street pointed a camera directly at David and Colleen, rapidly taking pictures. David saw him and quickly took Colleen’s arm, turning her away and pulling her along the street.

  “David, what…”

  “Come this way, someone is taking photographs of us.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “There is a dark blue Ford sedan across the street and the driver was taking photos just as we came out of the Archives Building.”

  “Why would he want photos of us? He was probably taking them of the building.”

  “I don’t think so, he was looking directly at us and he was wearing an earphone. I think it’s time we returned to the hotel.”

  “Don’t you think you are being a little bit melodramatic?”

  “Colleen, have you forgotten all that has happened back home, the break-ins, the murder of the foreman at DeCosta Scrap Yard and the removal of the samples and reports at the lab?”

  “No, but who would even know we are here, except Angela and Jimmy?”

  “Have you ever thought that we may have been followed? Now, I am wondering about the second attendant at the Archive Building, the nasty one. Was she making notes about what we were looking at and giving them to someone? It’s entirely possible they may be following us right now.”

  He looked around, but could see no one that looked as though they were following. David hailed a cab and directed the driver to take them back to their hotel. As they were entering the lobby, Colleen stopped and said, “David, I just thought of something.”

  “I was thinking of something too,” he said, kissing her.

  “I didn’t mean that. What I meant to say was we must have gotten to the Poconos without being followed. Remember how we left your car then slipped out the rear door and left in the rental car?”

  “Okay, are you telling me something?”

  “Yes and remember how I used Angela’s American Express card to book the room in the Poconos, then we paid Angela back in cash when we arrived at Split Rock Lodge. When we arrived here, you used your card to pay for the room, book the tickets at the Kennedy Center and you probably used it at the rental car place, too.”

  “Okay, so I’m going to have a whopping bill.”

  “Yes, but if someone from our government wanted to, they could probably check on where your American Express card was used to track our location. That guy you said was taking pictures could use them to identify us.”

  “In which case, we are toast.”

  “I’d rather not use the word toast but it is possible that Miss Friendly at the Archive Building pointed us out to him because of the things we were looking at.”

  “That’s probably what her notes were about.”

  “Do you think the room here is bugged?”

  “We had better check, so don’t say anything. We’ll just write notes again and give out some false information.”

  Chapter 17

  Alexandria, VA, Alexandria Hilton Hotel: Friday, June 15.

  After unlocking the door to their room, they went in and sat on the bed. David looked at Colleen and, holding his finger to his mouth, said, “Do you want to go to the Air and Space Museum this afternoon? I’m tired of researching the Philadelphia Experiment. We might just as well forget about it; it’s old news, even if it was interesting.”

  Motioning with his hands to speak, David pointed at Colleen to indicate it was her turn.

  “I agree. Let’s trash this business and go to the museum; I’m bored with it.”

  “Good,” he said, shaking his head yes.

  Taking out
a piece of paper he wrote; “We will have to find a way to head for home without being followed. Let’s go for a swim. I don’t think they can bug the pool. Take all of our notes with you.”

  Following his lead, Colleen suggested, “David, let’s go for a swim.”

  Colleen removed four pages of notes from her pad. She covertly folded them up and wrapped them in a towel in the bathroom.

  It was past 1:00 when they changed into their suits and went down to the pool. They ordered hamburgers at a small poolside restaurant and charged them to the room, telling the waiter they would be in the pool for a few minutes while waiting for their lunch.

  In the center of the pool, David held Colleen closely, kissing her and whispering in her ear, “We need to get out of Washington.”

  “I agree, but we have this rental car and they probably know the make and model. It will be easy to follow us. How are we going to arrange this?”

  “I’m thinking we just play dumb. What we need to do is lead them astray. Let’s make them think that we are no longer interested in what happened with the Aratusa and the USS Morgan. They are able to follow us and bug our rooms so we need to turn that against them.”

  “How?”

  “When we get back to the room we’ll quickly rewrite all of our notes while in the bathroom under the guise of taking a shower. When we do it, we will change them to look as though we were only interested in the Philadelphia Experiment. We’ll also make it appear we were not too competent at finding additional information that was not already common knowledge. Later, I will say something like; ‘Let’s get rid of this stuff and enjoy the museum.’ We will make a production of throwing the copied notes in the wastebasket. After that, we’ll dress and go to the Air and Space Museum.”