LITTLE-KNOWN HISTORY OF KERGUELEN, Part Seven

(This image is from Stargate Newsletter, Number 9, Feb-Mar 1997, as published by Stargate International.)

This should be the final installment of the Kerguelen history lessons I am providing for you. Again, many thanks are in order to J.R. Mooneyham, the author of the fascinating material. My current entry is found at:

http://www.jmooneyham.com/lost-civilization-kerguelen-2.html#section2.25

You can find out more about Mr. Mooneyham at http://www.jmooneyham.com/spjrm.html#jr .

Now where were we? Ah, yes! This is from the aforelinked website, and I quote, with my own commentary in red:

"The special task force's responsibilities and power increased still more in the 20th century when humanity-at-large began testing and using nuclear weapons, as well as some years later dispatching space probes into Earth and Moon orbit and beyond. Most fleet operations are ordered to add still more stand off distance between Earth and themselves, and new operating procedures and technologies are integrated into the fleet to better fend off humanity's increasing capabilities to observe events in space and near Earth orbits. The fleet is becoming steadily more stealthy to match humanity's growing capacities.

"Too, most of the secret fleet Kerguelen bases on Earth are shut down and destroyed as the fleet can not afford to properly maintain or man them any longer, as the possibilities of native scrutiny become increasingly keen."

I think they may fear that as humans have been aware of UFOs for some time now, anything that would represent a major leap forward in said awareness is to be avoided by the Kerguelen.

"The growing power of the task force, plus the high priority of R&D projects into interstellar flight and anti-human weapons technologies are making for changes in internal fleet politics.

"The astonishingly fast pace of innovation among 20th and early 21st century humanity is alarming both the fleet and the elite. At this time the Kerguelen possess a level of technology in some ways (not all) equivalent to what might be expected of 25th century humanity. But it has taken the Kerguelen millions of years to reach this point. At the present going rates humanity will surpass the Kerguelen in only a matter of centuries. One of the mostly unspoken and unexamined implications of this is that the structure of Kerguelen society may require substantial change to adequately deal with this threat. Needless to say, this scale of internal change is not something the elite would wish to consider.

"By 2000 humanity already possesses comparable or even superior technologies to the Kerguelen in some fields. But these are considered much less dangerous to the Kerguelen than certain other items might be. Plus, via covert surveillance and onsite spies, the Kerguelen are sometimes able to steal information and samples of technological innovations from humanity to aid their own research efforts.

"Fortunately, most human organizations do not suspect such intelligence efforts may sometimes be from outsiders, but rather exclusively suspect and accuse only their own kind."

Will humanity's egocentric tendencies ultimately spell its downfall?

"Internal Kerguelen debates are raging on issues such as possibly exterminating humanity without warning, or peaceably contacting it, and seeking some sort of treaty of non-aggression. The fleet cannot yet flee the system into interstellar space at any pace safe from pursuit, as the required propulsion means are not yet at hand. However, a multitude of deadly weapons have been devised with which to terminate the man-apes."

The man-apes? That's us, people.

"Most consist of biological weapons, which are easy and cheap to create and produce in mass quantities, as well as keep safely contained in the routine conditions available across a fleet of spacecraft and mass of space-based colonies.

"However, as always, the Kerguelen rarely decide or act quickly on any matter, until forced to by events. And the possible consequences of unleashing their biological agents upon the Earth do not sit well with the elite, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, many agents as yet have no suitable defensive measures to protect the Kerguelen themselves-- it being far easier to create killer viruses than to stop them once active. So in the circumstance that something forced the Kerguelen back to Earth for a refuge, they might be threatened by the agent(s) (or mutations of same) they themselves placed there.

"Plus, applying such agents would mean terminating all physical intelligence contacts with agents on Earth beforehand, as a fail-safe measure. And once the human population fell below critical mass, no longer would new technological innovations or entertainment media pour forth from the ape-men. The Kerguelen elite are coming to like both these elements too much to give them up easily. And some are even daring to contemplate an existence where the Kerguelen attempt to maintain the secrecy of their presence from humanity indefinitely, with an ever diminishing margin of technological advantage! After all, so long as humanity remains unaware of the Kerguelen, they will continue to remain vulnerable to various weapons the Kerguelen could loose upon them, in the worst case; but at the same time the Kerguelen can continue to spy upon and steal the best of what technologies the humans come up with, to at least maintain a rough parity with the ape-men, if not better.

From time to time, I wonder if I myself have been observed by the Kerguelen.

"The Kerguelen have been forced by events to once again increase contact between themselves and humans, in order to obtain more information regarding certain human technologies which already surpass the Kerguelen's, as well as other matters, such as subtlely sabotaging various developments which the Kerguelen consider to pose a threat to them. For instance, the Kerguelen do not consider complete peace between Earth nations as necessarily beneficial from their point of view-- although such peace might slow the pace of weapons innovation somewhat, which would be good. No, the Kerguelen would rather keep some conflicts going Earthside to keep the humans' attention from turning too much to the skies."

The Kerguelen probably think America's involvement in Iraq is just fine. As long as America is actively creating trouble around the world, it diverts the world's attention from other more important matters. As long as the people of America are distracted by such things as television, sports, fashion, and celebrities, Americans will not pay attention to what their government is doing and will make little effort to stop it.

"Wars also consume resources, making it more difficult for humans to invest in long term, deep space mission technologies and certain other matters the Kerguelen perceive as threatening to the status quo. And, best of all, wars between humans on Earth just might eradicate or effectively disable the species, solving the Kerguelen's human problem once and for all, without any need to install genetically engineered killer viruses on the planet.

"The increasing popularity of UFO sightings and studies among humanity in the late 20th/early 21st centuries also disturb and alarm the Kerguelen elite-- for if such things ever become too popular, or actually taken seriously, Kerguelen security could rapidly become compromised.

"Therefore, as the 20th century came to a close, the Kerguelen elite formed a new task force, giving it the mission to supervise and finance purely human organizations on Earth, with some dedicated to creating UFO stories out of whole cloth (including some quite elaborate and convincing on their face hoaxes), and others purposed to debunk the same stories, as well as possibly others coming from third parties. The organizations at times also encouraged writings on the subject by both professionals and amateurs, via various means.

I find this rather discouraging. I love the book "Why People Believe Weird Things" and I had always cheered author Michael Shermer as a debunker of things such as UFOs. Now I am left wondering if Mr. Shermer himself is an agent of the Kerguelen.

"The resulting firestorm of argument and debate served well to keep UFOs on the fringes of serious human study, for quite some time.

"Another, more sinister development among the Kerguelen at this time, is a directive to another new task force to focus upon the more developed and democratic nations of humanity, and try to influence them to reshape themselves to be more like the Kerguelen society. To greatly reduce civil liberties, and raise surveillance rates on the public and middle-to-low hierarchy individuals to as near 100% as possible."

During my periods of lucidity, I have some of this happening in the United States in recent years.

"During the 20th century this task force experienced many setbacks in their efforts, due to the significant differences between humanity and the Kerguelen themselves. It was simply difficult to get a good understanding of the human culture. Finally, however, they found the key: the growth of monstrous so-called 'business' corporations among humanity. These organizations were gaining new freedoms and powers almost daily, to the expense of democratic forms of government. Human business interests also coincided nicely with Kerguelen interests, in that human business disliked uncertainty, and craved stability. Add to this the simple and straightforward over-riding desire for human currency which ruled these entities, and the situation was tailor-made for Kerguelen manipulation."

And yes, the author IS talking about Americans, and by association, probably even us ex-pats. For those of us who find America's business world to be a strange, unnatural, "alien" sort of thing, this all does seem to fit, doesn't it?

"The critical region seemed to be one called the United States of America, as all the other advanced democracies seemed to follow its lead. Turn the US into a police state, and the other democracies would likely follow suit. Those that didn't, could be forced into obedience with the USA's overwhelming military might. And all the rest of humanity's various nations were so primitive and weak that they would have no choice but to accept the commands of the US afterwards.

"Yes, the keystone was the USA. Strip it of its democratic ways, and humanity was essentially conquered. The powerful scenario generating computers aboard the Kerguelen space vessels, as well as the Kerguelen's ability to manipulate Earth markets via electronic means, would provide the details and tactics required to achieve the objective. One, maybe two human generations (25-50 years) were estimated to be all the time required for complete success."

Do Americans need to protect their civil liberties and fight for their freedoms in order to keep the Kerguelen from assuming control?

"Humanity was not totally defenseless. The modern descendents of the original Asvin secret societies, though now few in number and limited in influence, became aware of the new manipulative efforts, and sought to counter them. Unfortunately, their resources were no match for the instant electronic wealth the Kerguelen could effortlessly create within human banking systems at will, and wield throughout human society to push their agenda."

Does this have anything to do with the IMF, I have to wonder... ?

"To humanity-at-large, such effects seemed merely to stem from the money of various human corporations, interest groups, and wealthy individuals. So why didn't government economic authorities detect the tampering? Partly because the Kerguelen masked the sources of the extra funds in a multitude of ways, from generating it within the secret and unaccountable budgets of US intelligence agencies, to making it appear as massive but hard to stem counterfeiting efforts in third world countries, to producing it along with other virtual monies in massive corporate corruption and fraud events, and in smaller amounts here and there as parts of criminal computer cracking of human banks, which essentially allowed a tapping of Earth-based insurance company funds, as well as tax payer dollars in the resulting bailouts."

If I recall correctly, some of this has been happening in America according to recent news.

"The simplest and most straightforward way however was to manipulate the USA into simply printing more money."

If this is true, the Kerguelen manipulations have been successful in this regard.

"That is, perform massive deficit spending, with a huge share slotted for military, intelligence, and security purposes, and therefore suitable for diverting in all sorts of ways untraceable afterwards by authorities. Of course, after a number of years this would produce severe economic problems for the US-- but by then the rest of the world would already be under its thumb, and it would be convenient to the Kerguelen schedule for the US to then become weakened itself, and so more easily susceptible to the Kerguelen's own brands of overt command and control.

"Soon, the Kerguelen would directly or indirectly rule America: and through America, all humanity."

Is this why America feels the need to police the world? Possibly. It could be due to outside influences!

"Fortunately for the Kerguelen, the USA economy in particular was especially vulnerable to such manipulation at this time, due to it being in the early stages of both computing and internet technology revolutions simultaneously. Human experts were still uncertain about how to balance civil liberties, profit, and security in the new and fluctuating environment, and were under enormous economic and political pressures to squeeze civil liberties anyway. Thus, the Kerguelen were delighted at how easily much of their plans fell into place. The human elite often seemed to be doing the Kerguelen's work for them!"

"But there were also some humans outside the secret societies who struggled against such manipulations, even while unaware of the Kerguelen presence and influence. They far outweighed the numbers and capacities of the secret societies for resisting the Kerguelen, as the societies themselves had been decimated over the millennia by various misfortunes, including the short attention span of human beings in general (even legacy members of the societies themselves would often abandon the cause, as at times whole generations would pass with no fresh and obvious evidence of the Kerguelen threat to the human race).

The human race seems to suffer from a massive case of attention deficit disorder.

"So this time the fate of humanity would be decided not by one or a few local heroes, but by small groups spread far and wide across the globe, amplifying their intelligence and leveraging their clout via the internet and whatever other technologies they could seize upon, to do their best to prevent humanity from being seduced into entering a new Dark Age, from which they might never be able to emerge again.

"Of course, the scant odds of success for these scattered resistance elements became the butt of popular jokes among the Kerguelen elite and fleet alike: circa early 2003 even mainstream US media itself was frequently heaping ridicule upon such parties and their efforts. Yes, the conquest of humanity looked to be a hilarious event, indeed."

That represents the end of the writings as far as I have been able to determine from my examination of the website.

What does this portend for humanity? Not much in the way of good, I suppose. Apparently, as America approaches a police state and asserts greater dominance over the rest of the world, it serves as an unwitting tool of the Kerguelen. As to what life would be like under Kerguelen control, it is anyone's guess.

I will probably write no further on this topic, other than to include any personal insights I might have on how all of this relates to the world today. Or, well, how it relates to my little world here in the southern Indian Ocean.

Thanks for reading the author's fascinating material and for considering my commentaries on his writings. I know not whether he deals in truth, but I can discern certain ways in which what he writes of could indeed be unfolding among us as we plod on, unaware. I believe he is onto something important, something unseen by nearly all of us who consider ourselves members of the human race.

Well, I need to do some more cleaning and scrubbing around the cabin to get rid of the stench. I am grateful for having a large supply of Pine-Sol I ordered after the last time this happened (that is, after my previous extended bender. I also need to be working on repairing the corner where the floor eroded a bit, allowing what little heat there is to escape. It is now autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, and in this strangely beautiful and godforsaken part of the world, the approaching winter is always to be dreaded. Time for me to make myself busy and lay in some supplies.

Hello Once Again From Somewhere South

I fully realize it has been nearly two years since I last wrote a blog
entry. I apologize to you, my faithful readers, for this error in
judgment on my part. How, if I am to retain any semblance of sanity,
can I continue to avoid contact with fellow humans? I will attempt to
bring you up to date as possible.

I also realize that some of the pictures I posted early on are no
longer appearing on my weblog. I will work to remedy that situation as
well.

Two years can seem like a very long time, or it can pass quickly. In
my case, it has seemed like an eon. I would suppose that my continued
smoking of the Kerguelen Cabbage leaves has contributed to my
delinquency in writing. You would not imagine what it has been like to
awaken from vague dream states to a cabin floor covered with Charley’s
feces as well as my own. Luckily for Charley, the nearby stream has
eroded one corner of the cabin to the point that he has had access to
water. Leaving several large bags of dog food opened before I smoke has
been helpful as well. I can tell you that my life pattern during this
absence has been primarily that of smoking the leaves, lying down to
dream, awakening often enough to eat and give myself fluids, and making
the trip across the harbor to retrieve my supplies. I don’t require
much Southern Comfort any more, because the leaves have now taken the
place of alcohol.

The last time I boated over to Port-Aux-Francais I picked up a battery
I had ordered for the computer. Some extra fuel for the generator has
been helpful as well, because with all I want to know about 2007 and
2008, I need to keep the battery charged.

Having the computer running again has been good. By my own choosing, I
have been mostly without news of the outside world for the past two
years. I find it both disheartening and comforting to find out that
things have mostly not changed. I see George W. Bush is still President
of the United States, and that the U.S. is still in Iraq. I had hoped
for better news on both those fronts, but again, nothing has really
changed in those areas. I also see where America is having some
economic problems that weren’t quite as bad as they were when I
“checked out” in 2006. The rest of the world seems just as nutty
as ever, and while I know I should seek more contact with humans, I
realize I am probably just fine where I am for now.

What have I learned from smoking the leaves of the Kerguelen Cabbage
plant? I will share some of those things with you in blog entries in
the near future. You will learn some cosmic truths of cosmic
proportions, as well as some lies of similar magnitude. I am glad to be
back with you, and if you can help me along, I would like to kick the
smoking habit and at least get back to being a sodden drunk.

Cheers!

STRANGE MUSINGS

Things have slowly been returning to normal around here. Charley and I have been regaining some of our lost weight, and I have been experiencing some moments of clarity.

I made it over to town in the boat last week to get some more supplies (including lots of stuff for cleaning), and when I looked at the relatively calm waters of the bay (the wind was only blowing about 25 mph) and sunny weather (still cold, but sunny at least), I noted that I had missed most of our summer while on my bender. While it may be April in the northern hemisphere, it is feeling like what I think of as October down this way. I will have to make another trip or two in order to stock up for the next six months. After missing out on summer, it will seem like enduring two winters in a row... and down here, that is a very depressing thought.

The guys in town hadn't seen me for a while, and I think they were aghast at my appearance. If any of you recall the crummy old TV program "Grizzly Adams", I suppose you could say I have taken on that sort of appearance, although I presented a wretched, stinky, emaciated version. The guys were all concerned, and gave me some sideways looks. Apparently, a couple of them had come out to my place in late January while I was still on the bender, and they had tried to communicate with me but to no avail. The story they told was horrifying.

I had been sitting in the middle of the cabin's main room, naked, in a pile of Charley's feces. The place reeked and was completely filthy. Somehow, they deduced that I was feeding myself, feeding Charley, giving Charley water, and keeping somewhat warm. Luckily it was summer and the cabin was well insulated, but they said it was only about 10 degrees C, which equates to 50 degrees F. Although I was very much "out of it", it seems I was somehow able to regulate the use of my propane and keep myself from getting hypothermia (there is no wood down here, so we have to use electric and propane heat. I have several large propane tanks.)

I guess my visitors thought I was hopeless but they were satisfied that Charley and I were physically healthy enough. They came back about a week later with some dog food and some canned stuff for me, although I was unaware they had ever been there.

When I made my trip to town, people recognized my boat but didn't recognize me. I like the long-haired look, and I think I'll keep it for a while. The beard is getting long too, but that's fine. While the previous months have been ones of complete debauchery, I am now wearing clean clothing and have been bathing myself regularly. I've gone from around 140 pounds back up to 155, with 165 being what I normally weigh... and on a 6'4" frame, 165 is skinny to begin with. So you can imagine what I looked like at the end of what I will refer to from now on as "my time away".

The most difficult thing besides going through alcohol withdrawal, is the fact that I basically wrecked my home. It wasn't much to begin with, but the stench of feces and urine is very difficult to get rid of after one allows it to build for so many months, as I did. After shoveling out all the poop (Charley's AND mine) I scrubbed all the floors extensively, then scrubbed all the walls and even the ceilings. I have been doing this daily. I am getting tired of the smell of the Pine-Sol-type disinfectant mixed with the stench of copious accumulated eliminations, but I'm noticing more Pine-Sol and less poop and pee, so things are getting better.

I haven't had a drink now for a few weeks, and I hope I can stay sober for a while. Staying off the cabbage-smoking habit will be tough too, but I will be working hard at that. Wish me luck.

And, I am still considering getting out of this place and finding somewhere warmer. I understand there are still some totally deserted Pacific atolls, but I also understand the flies can be pretty intolerable at those places. Someplace like Pitcairn might be interesting, but I don't know if I would want to be on such a small island with other people around... it might feel claustrophobic. At least out here there isn't anybody else around.

Snave says there are some places in northeastern Oregon that are very isolated but which are not far from "civilization"... I'll warn you Snave, I may have to check it out.

BACK TO THE LAND OF THE LIVING!

Well, I GUESS I am back...

I am not sure where I have been for the last six months.

About a week ago, I awoke to the sensation of something warm on my cheek, and realized it was Charley licking me. I sat up and looked around the cabin, and I noticed many spent matches around the floor, several dozen empty Southern Comfort bottles, dried Kerguelen Cabbage everywhere, and my cabbage pipe in my hand. Poor Charley looked as if he hadn't been eating well... I could see his ribs practically sticking out through his fur. Worst of all, there was so much dog urine and feces in the cabin I thought I would pass out from the stench.

Apparently I had eaten occasionally during the past half year, and I had fed Charley from time to time. It didn't appear as if I had changed my clothes, though... phew...

I stood on my old scale, frightened to see I had lost 30 pounds. A look in the mirror revealed nothing different about me, just that I was much thinner.

If six months had passed by in a alcohol- and hallucinogen-fueled daze, that would mean it would now be the middle of summer. Desperate for fresh air, I began a daily ritual of standing naked in the unrelenting wind, hoping the wind would blow away my stink. I had forgotten how cold it still is here in Kerguelen during summer, and the wind made it all the colder. As for the house, I had to leave all doors and windows open, with a couple of bottles of stuff akin to Pine Sol open wide to mask the wretched scent.

It looks like I am just about out of food, so this means I'll have to do some work on the boat to get it ready for a trip across the bay to town, for supplies.

I had some pretty strange dreams while I was elsewhere. At least I THINK they were dreams... Maybe at some point I'll remember enough to blog about them for you. Thanks for being patient during my time away. Despite our current condition, Charley and I are very glad to be back.

This evening Charley and I stood watching the sunset. Never mind that it was icy cold and the air was full of sleet... the Kerguelen sunset is a time of beauty. I felt that my hair, now grown past my shoulders, was beginning to freeze as I forced my eyes open against the harsh wind. At least I have a thick beard to help insulate my face a bit, although I have to wonder about myself a bit in realizing I haven't shaved or cut my hair in about a year... not even the nose hairs!

I held Charley close to my chest, to keep us both warm. As I saw the sun disappear below the horizon, I felt a surge of emotion, realizing that events in my life had been leading to this moment, and that all the previous events in my life will always culminate to equal the present moment, whenever that moment is. Then, given the illusory nature of time, I thought about my life, in time, as an illusory thing without form, without content, without spirit.

Despite the constant focusing of my life's past events into a complete present time full of clarity for me, at all times... the focus which can be brought about through communication with other human beings remains lost to me. Running from one place to another has not made my life easy for the past decade, and in fact it has caused my time to pass at such a slow rate that I sometimes fear it has stopped altogether. It is the waiting that makes it seem as if I am watching a pot that never boils . As I wait for something monumental to happen in my life, and nothing happens, I become increasingly alarmed at how inwardly focused I have become.

It is time for me to leave Kerguelen and attempt to join the human race. During the next week I will pack the contents of the cabin onto my boat, pilot the boat to Port-Aux-Francais, purchase a container, and get everything loaded onto the next freighter... which will leave Kerguelen about ten days from now for the island of Reunion. Thanks for all your suggestions; I haven't decided yet on where to go. I think Charley will like it better in a warmer climate. I know I will, too! I'll let you know what's happening, and I will post the final Kerguelen history lesson during the next few days.

I HAVE SEEN A BLINDING FLASH OF LIGHT

TIME TO MOVE ON?

While in the throes of a two-week trip, thanks to my smoking of the delightful Kerguelen Cabbage, I had some colorful insights regarding my current situation. I have started to think that it might be time for me to leave Kerguelen. I was looking at J.Marquis' blog "Are We There Yet?" and he has posted some pictures from a recent Alaska trip. The photos reminded me of how much I miss trees, flowers, songbirds and warmth. And other people! While I am a misanthrope, it helps to have real people to talk to once in a while. I'm not just thinking of myself, either. When I see Charley shivering in the cold when I take him outside so he can take a dump, I feel badly for him because he is obviously miserable. And his wheels don't do so well on the tundra-like ground.

But where would I go from here? I have already been in the South Pacific and in Central Asia. I'd like to find a place with mountains and beautiful scenery, like I have here, but where there would also be a few more people around, more vegetation, and a better climate. If you can think of any great ideas, please comment. I may go back on the Cabbage for a bit... It helped me get to this point of serious self-assessment (although the best part was getting really messed up and seeing some cool visions and shit!) Hey, Charley, pass me the pipe and the lighter!

LITTLE-KNOWN HISTORY OF KERGUELEN Part Six

First, let me say that coming down off a Kerguelen Cabbage smoking habit is hell. But I'm back.

This is the next-to-last installment of the Kerguelen history lessons, with many thanks to J.R. Mooneyham at http://www.jmooneyham.com/lost-civilization-kerguelen-2.html .

Approximately 22,000 BC: The Kerguelen completely fail to notice the alarming events taking place on Earth's southeast asian peninsula, until long after things have settled back to something nearer normal again-- which is a lucky break for humanity.

The Kerguelen fleet doesn't notice the extraordinary pace of technological development and other matters on the Southeast Asian peninsula until long after the climax of events there-- things simply happened far too fast for the fleet's normal surveillance schedule and response routines to notice (just a single century in general, with the most alarming matters ocurring in just decades). Plus, most attention towards Earth was concentrated on watching for signs of the inorganic technologies of the Kerguelen spacecraft stolen by the mutineers-- stuff decidedly different from the peninsula's primarily biotech-based or derived devices. The very short time-scale of peninsula events, and their containment to one particular region of the globe also helped shield events from Kerguelen scrutiny.

Approximately 18,000 BC- 12,000 BC: Earth is bombarded five times by heavier than usual cosmic dust concentrations from space. Earth's climate may well be effected. Some of this same dust traveling through the solar system may be spawning a new dust ring between Mars and Jupiter.

Approximately 9,500 BC- 9,000 BC: The Asvin of Earth surprise the Kerguelen fleet, and then vanish
[To see details about the Asvin civilization, please refer to What Could Have Been: A Lost Civilization in Southeast Asia, 25,125 BC- 13,875 BC]

After this shocking development, the Kerguelen elite direct the fleet to move some elements further away from Earth, while better masking others from long range detection or location via Kerguelen equivalent technologies. These measures will effectively render much Kerguelen space activity invisible to humanity until at least around the turn of the Approximately 8,000 BC+: Total world population may be somewhere between 5 and 10 millionA booming human population worldwide is driving many other large animal species extinct-- including some variants of humanity itself.

Approximately 6,000 BC - 1 AD: Sometime during this period the Earth, along with the rest of the Solar System, enters a vast cloud of interstellar gas

9,000 BC- 1,945 AD: The Kerguelen fleet maintains covert surveillance of Earth, seeking signs of the Asvin; The fleet otherwise cuts back on operations on and near Earth. The mystery of the missing Asvin, along with the surprise attack in space, haunts the Kerguelens. They watch closely for centuries, then millennia, for signs of their reappearance, only to find none. Instead, the entire planet of ape-men seems to go backwards 10,000 years in technology, in the wake of the Asvin's vanishing act.

1960 AD- 1965 AD: Multiple Russian probes launched towards Mars all meet with disaster

1,969 AD- 1973 AD: Another series of Russian missions to Mars fails to live up to expectations

1,989 AD: The sophistocated Russian Mars Phobos probes fail, with the last disappearing under puzzling circumstances. The Russian Mars Phobos probes are of a completely new design compared to earlier efforts. They also possess their own 'daughter' satellites for various missions to the Mars moon of Phobos. Both Phobos missions suffer disasterous failures. Phobos-2 does manage to limp through a fraction of its original mission, though it soon disappears. The last two months of photos it sends back to Earth seem to display various anomalous images. The very last one apparently taken two days before the probe disappears seems to show a huge, smooth object approaching the probe.

Many years later scientists will explain the strange images were essentially caused by something similar to long exposures performed with cameras on Earth, smearing or lengthening some images into weird geometries, or else by other flaws in the transmission. They also will say the Phobos missions were plagued with many sorts of problems which made them likely to fail or return erroneous results.

1,991 AD: A small and unusual object is detected near Earth, following an unlikely flightpath and exhibiting some signs of possible artifice. Is it merely an extraordinarily circumstanced natural object, or part of some super-secret spacecraft previously launched from Earth, and undisclosed to the public? Or could it even be an alien probe of some sort?

1,993 AD: NASA's Mars Observer is lost as it approaches Mars

1,995 AD: Russia loses a Mars probe during launch; it falls somewhere in the vicinity of the Andes mountains

1,998 AD: A Japanese Mars probe fails during launch

1999 AD: NASA suffers the failure of two more separate missions to Mars; humanity is realizing that the undersea Kerguelen plateau was once a dryland island continent....while they are also nearing the levels of wealth and technology necessary to explore the undersea mass......but all indications are that those with the means are far more interested in other locations, nowhere near the sunken Kerguelen continent. Thus, it could be centuries or even millennia before humanity discovers the secrets drowned there.
2000 milestone: The status of KerguelenSince the last major island of the Kerguelen island continent sank some 20 million years ago, further volcanic activity has created new islands in the chain.

The new islands however are little more than the tips of new undersea mountains poking above the waves; nothing as massive and vast as the original three Kerguelen bodies.

These mountain tops and other associated lands today form an island group, comprised of some 7000 square km of archipelago (roughly 300 islands and reefs) and lying situated in the South Indian Ocean. The largest island of the bunch is called Kerguelen. The entire group is legally considered a French possession.

In recent history the modern island of Kerguelen has seen both ice and considerable volcanic activity (Kerguelen possesses plenty of volcanoes). The above sea level remnants of Kerguelen suffer a frigid climate due to the convergence of Antarctic and Indian Ocean currents in the vicinity, and often strong winds which contribute to the chill. The winds also contribute to high waves in the area-- with 15 m heights being considered not unusual. This heavy wave action may contribute to the year-round ice-free nature of the seas around the islands. The skies of modern Kerguelen spend much of their time overcast.

Virtually the only native plant which has survived in the region from ancient times is the Kerguelen cabbage (rabbits brought in by foreigners destroyed practically all other lowland vegetation which had managed to survive the previous icy and volcanic periods).
Today a scientific research station of considerable size exists in the area, housing up to 100 scientists at a time.

2000 AD: By now humanity has explored something less than 2% of the deep oceans-- and less than 10% of the oceans overall. 50% of the surface of the Earth exists beneath 3000 to 6000 meters of ocean depth. Life in the deep ocean is at least as diverse as that in rainforests.

2001 AD: Humanity discovers a surprising contamination of near Earth space with uranium

2004 AD: A rolling robotic probe (the US Spirit rover) accidentally catches sight of a UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) in the skies over Mars; a "strange" object a few miles across is detected in the vicinity of Saturn-- and there may be more like it

Just one more installment to go. We are now just about up to speed!