Matt raised an eyebrow at Andy. “How did you know about that?”

Andy waved away the question. “Most modern geologists do. There are seismometers left on the moon by Apollo astronauts that record moonquakes, right? So, they occur most often during perigee, that’s when the Earth and moon are closest together – once every month. It focuses a lot of gravitational energy on the geology. Ha! And I didn’t even go to Harvard.” Andy continued, “The Earth’s gravity can trigger quakes on the moon. But being eighty-two times smaller than us, the moon’s way too weak to trigger any earthquakes back here, though it is of course still enough of a force to pull at our tides. Now, what if all nine planets were brought into alignment; something that happens, once every thirteen hundred years or so? There would have to be a geological effect – there’d be no avoiding it.”

“Yes, yes, but more than geological,” Albadi said. “It is a very powerful gravitational force, no question. But when all the planets focus on us at the same time, what other cosmic forces would also be focused on us, pulling and tearing at us?” His face became grim. “They would draw out the old impurities, like pus from a boil.”

“So, this alignment is some kind of cosmic alarm clock,” Tania said.

“And it’s getting ready to ring,” Matt responded.

Abrams ran both his hands up through his short-cropped hair, exhaling. “Doctor, you said they’d been here before. But they’re not here now, and we are…so where are they?” He dropped his hands heavily to the table. “And what happened in those times they were here?”

“A sensible question, Major.” Albadi turned back to the pile of yellowing paper, and began flipping through more pages. “There are no times included here, but there are the ancient Syrian words for thousands and millions. I made some notes and then correlated these to what we know of the Earth’s history. What I found was astounding.”

He drew aside several pages of hand-written notes. “According to Alhazred, there have been five appearances of the Old Ones in Earth’s past. These events occurred after they supposedly went into their cosmic slumber, when they were in effect awoken. The periods correspond exactly to the four mass extinction events punctuating Earth’s history.”

“I don’t like the sound of this,” Matt said softly.

Albadi turned one of his note pages. “The first great mass extinction event took place when our world was in its infancy, some 434 million years ago, during the Ordovician period. According to the fossil record, sixty percent of all life forms of both terrestrial and marine life worldwide were exterminated. Then again, some 360 million years ago in the Late Devonian period, was the scene for the second mass extinction event.” He turned a page. “It goes on…The end of the Permian period, 250 million years ago, shows that up to ninety percent of life was extinguished.” He looked up. “Ninety percent.” He sighed and went on. “Finally, and most recently, 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs disappeared – all of them.”