The Alien Artifact 8 (5 page)

When Rosenberg stopped and stood dazed he
knew it was something big, and when he rested he realized its true
identity and that it was one of their shuttles, and they both
rushed on.

Their speed increased vastly and he knew he
would not die before they reached the shuttle, and knew he had to
go faster, and he was surprised when they got over a hill and saw
their shuttle was resting at the bottom, and they watched the other
shuttle come down from the sky and land next to their shuttle, and
they ran down the hill as fast as they could, not wishing to miss
anything and to get a new supply of fresh air.

At the shuttle he was so out of air and
suffocating that he ordered them to get him into the shuttle, where
he removed his helmet and collapsed over the floor, recovering from
the run, and breathed the incredible air in, and Rosenberg copied
him, and he realized how wonderful it was not to have the helmet
on, after sleeping in it, and he studied the amused face of Stanley
sitting in at his pilot chair, and he wondered what had happened
while they had been away.

He was surprised beer cans were lying over
the floor, and tried to work out where they came from, and if
anything had occurred.

“
Did you manage to contact the base?”
he panted, curiously, breathing in the sweet air, seeing the
remains of the food they had been eating, and discarded food
containers lying about the floor.

“
So you made it ...!
”
Stanley murmured, grinning
at him, and at the state he was in, lying over the
floor.

“
When did
you know t
hat the shuttle was
coming?
”

“
Just before you arrived! It was lucky!
Our oxygen is starting to get real low!”

“
Whose idea was the SOS message over
the ground?”

“
That was Orwell! He claimed he had
seen it done before! And calculated the size it had to be to see
from up in orbit! We all worked on making it!”

“
It worked! Any food?”

The pilot jumped up and removed a container
of food he knew he liked, and gave it to him, and got a drink
dispenser!

He watched Cronenberg and Rosenberg sitting
on the floor eating through the food hungrily.

“
Where’s Campbell?”

Cronenberg gasped and nearly choked, and saw
Rosenberg look startled, and watched the others look up with looks
of astonishment, knowing something had happened.

“
We found him dead!” Rosenberg
announced. “Something here kills humans! When we woke we found his
body and that he had been partly eaten!”

“
What! Something ate him! And neither
of you heard anything?”

“
The spacesuit and the thin atmosphere
don’t carry much sound, and we were heavily asleep in our
spacesuits!”

They all seemed to consider what had happened
astonished!

“
Perhaps that’s what took us here! To
eat us!” Lyndon gasped.

“
What did you see over there on that
hill?” Stanley asked, curiously, examining them, and the state they
were in.

“
I saw little!” Cronenberg
confessed.

“
Where you there early in the morning?”
Stanley asked.

“
Yes!” he replied.

“
I thought I saw you! I got up early!
The top part is visible from over there!”

“
Find anything else? Why did you come
from over there …?” Lyndon asked

“
We found another space vehicle over
there!”

“
Where did you find it?”

“
He found it!” Cronenberg pointed at
Rosenberg.

Rosenberg replied, “I searched the other side
of the hill! I saw it over there, hidden away … It was in a direct
line with here!”

They looked at him confused, wondering what
it was.

“
We found a crashed space vehicle
there! It was an old rocket spaceship! We found two pilots! One was
called Anders!”

“
I recall him!” Stanley replied first.
“He vanished with another astronaut on Mars years ago!”

As Cronenberg thought of Anders he realized
he had looked identical to the ghost astronaut he had seen in the
night over at the hill, which he had searched for signs of in the
morning before he climbed up the hill, and he wondered what the
hell it meant, and he decided not to mention it unless there was
more evidence of whatever it was existing.

They all looked up and watched pilots from
the other shuttle enter their shuttle, and them examining
everything about them, and one trying to check the damage done to
the shuttle.

Cronenberg got up and watched one at work,
and recalled him, and his job, and realized he was the best person
for the job.

“
You’re Commander Cronenberg! What
happened before you landed here?” he asked, curiously.

“
Something attacked the shuttle and
took control of it!”

He looked up, and stared at him with
surprise.

“
Are there flights records that can
confirm that?”

“
And we can to!”

He looked confused, wondering what it could
be.

“
Wait until you see the other space
vehicle ...!
” he told
him, still amazed at the find.

“
What other vehicle is
that?”

He pointed over in the direction of it, and
replied, “Did you not see it while landing? It’s away over
there!”

“
What could it be?”

“
Anders! Remember him! It’s an old
rocket vehicle …”

“
I remember him! What do you think he
was doing out here?”

“
I don’t have a clue!” he announced,
and he thought about it and realized how intrigued he was, and
realized he really wanted to know, and what was there and what was
going on there, and why he had seen a ghost astronaut.

Cronenberg went over to Orwell, the shuttle
science officer, to see what he had.

“
Did you get anything on what happened
to the shuttle, and how it came down here?”

“
A few things! It sure as hell was not
the shuttle itself. I checked records, and also proved it could not
have done what it had. There had to be something else that did
it!”

It surprised him that he was also questioning
what had happened had happened! He also realized Orwell knew that
they were also going to have a problem explaining what had happened
to them. Would they accept what they told them, and if they did not
what would they do about it?

He could try to get a full investigation, as
they had been nearly killed, and the highly expensive shuttle could
have been destroyed, and it might cost a lot to get it properly
repaired.

“
There was a strange magnetic
phenomenon detected
…
!
”
Orwell gasped.

“
I wonder what that could be …” he
asked, confused, copying one of the rescuers investigating it, to
see what he replied with.

“
Something of incredible magnitude
created a form of powerful magnetic influence, or something of that
nature!”

“
What could create such power? It had
to be tremendous!
”

“
Someone may have been playing around
with something somewhere! I was thinking if it was not from around,
as we have seen, then something could have created it somewhere
else, by some unknown means!
”

“
Why would they be experimenting on
something out there though? Could it be the southern pole creating
a magnetic influence?
”

“
How
could it have controlled the shuttle and carried out what it did!”
he moaned, confused. “
Someone may be playing around
with something in this region!
”

“
Why would they be experimenting on
something out here though?
”

“
Perhaps they’re creating something big
to influence Mars itself!”

“
In what way?”

“
They could want to alter Mars!” he
mumbled to himself. “If they could move it close to the sun or use
it to melt all the ice here they might be able to create immense
lakes of water and create an atmosphere. They might be able to
colonize it one day!”

The idea surprised Cronenberg and he realized
that he might even be suggesting it was a secret government or
group of governments plan, and he considered why it would be so
secretive.

“
What are your
assumptions?
”
Orwell uttered, breaking the deep silence, seeing him
thinking it over.

“
I
’
ve not drawn any proper
conclusions!
”
he confessed, considering how he could check if it would
work.
“
Whatever it is
–
it has incredible power! We need
more reasonable clues.
”

“
Even with all our technology, unknown
and unexplained phenomena still exists!
Who knows what
exists out there in the depths of space
–
and even unseen about us
–
which could very
well be beyond our detection methods and
comprehension.
”

Some strange thought was going through
Orwell’s mind and he was figuring through possibilities and
Cronenberg could not fully understand why his view of things had so
vastly altered and he wondered what had happened when he was
away.

He also occasionally had the look of a person
who somehow sensed an oncoming consequence, and was checking ways
to tackle it.

Had he found something? Or had he dreamed of
scientific finds far too many times?

“
At any rate, there might be other
mentions of such occurrences on the Earth!” Orwell continued. “Even
if most are antiquated and mythological! For instance
there are zones like
the Bermuda Triangle! Which was reputed to cause a similar
effect
–
before ships and planes vanished!
There could be
some sort of mass of something around
–
perhaps a mass of magnetic iron
...!
Our detection
methods on Mars and even the Earth may be small, and far smaller
than we think …T
he magnetic field of the globe has
been found to have altered in many ways over Earth’s
existence!”

Orwell searched his face, wondering what he
thought, and Cronenberg was sure he was thinking of questioning and
getting answers from him.

“
I have not heard of it properly doing
anything though!” Orwell replied. “Though not altogether
investigated – it is very unlikely to have such an intensity and
nature – even in northern regions ...
”

“
Okay!” he replied firmly, determined
to force Orwell into giving him something. “It
’
s coming from somewhere and
we all know it exists ... And it will be beneficial to check the
disturbance
–
which cannot be explained by normal science – and find what
we can on it.
”

“
I’ll attempt to find out if someone
had something around here, or was using something capable of doing
it!”

“
Did you find anything while I was
away?” he finally replied.

“
I
checked all the records and found one thing and just
before it took control of the shuttle something appeared and
flashed on and off, and was just recorded, which I think was
unintentional, and I took a photo of the unusual formation, which
was buried away in the blur of flickers!
”

Cronenberg was
surprised when he produced a photo of a complex sphere, which was
clearly artificial and of a highly advanced nature, and he realized
it looked of highly advanced alien origins!

Chapter 8

The Lost Library

Eventually,
after hours of searching records, Cronenberg entered Base One
library, after being given recommendations to go there, and glared
at vast bookshelves, covering the library walls, as he entered, and
gasped at how empty of people it was.

It amazed him
that such libraries once were the source of information for the
human race, and as he approached the books it became clear that it
had a great deal of unidentifiable information, and he put it down
to laziness that the stuff had not been added to the computers.

At first he had dismissed that there was a
library, as the others had not been aware of there being a book on
the entire base.

He had just grabbed some books and sat down
when Orwell marched in smiling, and marched up to him and sat next
to him.

“
I saw you coming in here at the end of
the corridor!” he laughed, and picked up a book off the table, at
his side, and flickered through the pages. “What you looking
for?”

“
I’ve checked everything about Anders
everywhere and have not found anything!” he moaned back.

“
Anders!” he replied, surprised. “What
do you want to know about him for?”

“
Why was he there, for starters? It’s
an incredible coincidence he crashed at the exact same place, in a
desolate region covering such a vast region, and it was one of the
only crashes on Mars!”