The long dead scrolls (2)

"I've seen a UFO," the American said. "Though it wasn't an unidentified object, it was a flying saucer, an alien spacecraft. I was up close enough to be sure. It was during summer camp, I was twelve or thirteen, and a small group of us were in the wood gathering wood for the campfire."

"I'm sorry," I said. "You asked me to translate an ancient text from the Torlean civilisation, why are you telling me about a teenage camping trip? I'm a busy man, I have a museum to run, articles to write."

"I'm explaining how I came by the long dead scrolls, and in order to do that I need to explain how I became involved in UFO watching."

"The long dead scrolls?"

"It is the name given to the documents I purchased. The person who sold them knew little about them, he didn't even know they were Torlean, just that they were ancient, rare, and evidence of alien visitation. If I may continue - I came to a clearing, a large circular space in the middle of the wood where no trees grew. And in the middle of the clearing was a giant spaceship. Saucer shaped. There was a cock-pit with a window, and I could see the pilot, humanoid but not human. She smiled at me, and I smiled back, but she made no attempt to move."

Human beings are the only animal on the entire planet Earth to have evolved smiling, so the chance that an alien species from another world, another galaxy, sharing this trait is several million to one, that's not including the additional improbability that alien visitors would be humanoid in form - they'd be just as likely to resemble rabbits, iguanas or hippos. But I chose not to interrupt. I would have to listen to his nonsense before I would find out about the scrolls.

"I turned to say something to my friends, but realised I was alone. I watched the woman in the flying saucer, trying to understand her hand gestures, but they meant nothing to me. Then, after a few minutes, the saucer took off, whizzed away into space."

I said nothing in response. There was nothing I could say that wouldn't cause offence, and I wanted to see his scrolls.

"Nobody believed me, of course. Nobody ever believes you. So I made a vow to myself that when I grew up I would dedicate myself to finding proof that UFOs exist. To cut a long story short, I made a fortune in real estate and use my spare time and money to seek proof. I've been building up evidence over the years, buying artefacts, photographs, computer files. Then one day I saw advertised a set of scrolls from an ancient civilisation that had been given to the owner by when he was abducted by aliens."

"It all seems far-fetched," I said. "Why would aliens have ancient scrolls in the first place."

"The seller explained everything. They had visited the Earth thousands of years ago and the people they met left these scrolls. The aliens asked him to return them to their rightful owner, though of course that wasn't possible, so he did the next best thing, offered them for sale to the highest bidder."

"You'll find that authentication is all in this sector. Aliens handing over ancient scrolls to random strangers is not a credible source, have you checked the scrolls are genuine?" 

"I had the age of the scrolls tested, they're over a thousand years old, 100% authentic it all corresponds. And I had an expert examine the text, hence I found it to be Torlean. You've just confirmed that. It was him who gave me your details."

"But I never heard of this. I am the first person in the world anyone would go to for authentication of a Torlean script.  Why did you not seek me out?"

"You're not from our world," the American said. 

"I'm sorry? You think I'm an alien?" 

"No, I mean the UFO watchers world. We have our own mechanisms for these things. We don't like to involved others. Disbelievers."

"So where are the rest of the scrolls?"

"They're in my house in Arkansas."

"Have you not brought copies?"

"No, you must come to Arkansas. It will not take long, not given the speed at which you translated the sample. Two months, three months, maybe less."

"Two months? I'm not some freelance translator from an agency, I have a museum to run. Articles to write."

"And what articles you shall write once you have translated the scrolls."

I thought about this. Yes, it would be burdensome to leave the museum in the care of Bradley for months at a time, it would create a backlog of work. But this work promised to be priceless. 

"I would have to see the proof of veracity, of course. I can't go flying hither and thither on a whim. But I hope you realise, that if this all proves authentic then it would be a major discovery, it would literally double the surviving writing of the Torlean people. If we publish a translation of these scrolls it will be huge, every museum magazine will cover it, every classical civilisations scholar will want a translation."

The American laughed.

"What's funny? I said. "You doubt it would be a big seller."

He laughed again. "Just the opposite. This will be the biggest story ever. Period. You're missing the story - this is the best ever evidence of alien visitors, and evidence that they have been visiting earth for centuries."

I hadn't thought of that. The greatest source of Torlean text ever, a chance to make my name beyond my wildest dreams, but it would all be dismissed as 'UFO nonsense'. I risked dedication months' of work to appease a few flying saucer chasers. It could ruin my reputation. My career. 

And yet ... I re-read the text to check. It was real. It was genuine. If the rest of the text was like this then I would just have to ignore the old fuddy duddies who denied the truth of it. This could be my big break.