The Antarctic Discovery (Novelette)

The Antarctic Discovery

(Novelette)

V Bertolaccini

This
edition published 2014 by CB

This is a
Smashwords edition 2014

Copyright
Victor Bertolaccini

ISBN:
978-1-3114-4803-3

All
rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission of the copyright owner. Nor can it
be circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without similar condition including this
condition being imposed on a subsequent purchaser.

All
characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance
to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

The first
novelette & half of The Antarctic Discovery novel!

Prologue

The Visitation

The pale cold complexion of the Russian
scientist entirely altered! Sounds he gave took strange tones
everywhere as he started trying to explain, and Weaver strained his
eyes trying to see him now, while he considered it, and the
darkness in the room grew!

“
Normal astronomers and observatories
around the world never detected it, and would have studied it with
great curiosity if they had at a far lower velocity, and would have
been baffled, as it went at many times the speed of
light!
”

Weaver grasped at what it was and started to
comprehend what he had been missing! He wondered what could detect
such an object, and if they even had anything available!

“
Its origins were undetected by the
sources that had seen it and had been set up for high speed
objects!” The scientist continued, biting his lower lip hard. “The
detection sites were mainly created and functioned to discover and
track any high speed objects for military detection systems and
unidentified flying objects of any kind, and from all the
accumulated sources known only Russian intelligence agencies
investigated it further because of its tremendous velocity and the
fact that the location of its descent was accurately traced into
this place and region of the Antarctic!”

“
My god!” Weaver gasped, realizing the
mistake he had made and what the outcome of what was occurring
could be!

“
Yes! The location was traced to this
top secret American military ice station base, where they
investigated!”

“
It must have been incredible!” Weaver
answered firmly. “The impact must have been tremendous! Did that
telescope here with its new technology have anything to do with
it?”

“
The scientists here, and in the
underground telescope chamber, did not even know of its arrival! If
it had been far slower they might have recorded it as an asteroid
of immense proportions! It was only recorded as an immense
explosion or earthquake of unknown origins, which had lasted
seconds, and which had occurred during the night!”

Weaver was amazed that it actually landed
nearby, and he believed it had to be the telescope that had been
responsible, and he had detected that they had been up to something
with it when he had discovered it in the secret chamber below.

“
The magnitude recorded by their
equipment had shown them the tremendous power it had!”

“
Tremendous power!” Weaver panted, and
considered what weight it could have and at what distance away it
was.

“
Russian scientists used examinations
of satellite images to examine and trace the exact location where
it had landed, and where it had entered the ice!”

“
Like a crazy shooting star exploding
out of the polar night sky!” Weaver continued. “At a velocity and
force unheard of!”

“
After a great deal of observations,
research, and discussions by the leading scientists they agreed
that the thing that they had found had to have artificial origins
mainly by its appearance and its tremendous power! It also has to
have vast technology, which may give its origins! They had to
investigate it as far as they could! Even with this highly
confidential American base being here!”

Weaver could not get what it could be or the
outcome of such a scenario, and thanked the scientist for warning
him of it!

“
Space may be full of them?” the
scientist continued, giving his opinion. “We have to investigate!
The future of this world could be at stake?”

“
So there could be more searching for
where it came from? Do you think it was damaged
landing?”

“
We have to get anything that we can on
it! We have to get as much details of it and its origins no matter
what!”

“
The technology could very well make it
worthwhile!” Weaver sighed, thinking of how much it could be
worth.

“
Have they been able to make contact
with it?” Weaver asked.

“
As far as I know they have
not!”

“
Have they entered it yet?”

“
As far as I know they have not! What
it is made of is either indestructible or virtually indestructible!
They have been trying everything that they have to get into to
it!”

“
Incredible!” He replied. “I never
thought I would live to see one! Never mind confront one! What
information have you on it?”

“
There is little so far! It has a vague
flying saucer shape and is about quarter of a mile across all
around it, and about hundred and something feet high! They have
uncovered most of it, except a region still under the ice! They
have used everything available to check for places to enter
it!”

“
Is there positive proof that nothing
emerged from it before they arrived?”

“
No! But there have been no signs of it
anywhere, and no encounters have been reported worldwide from
it!

“
Has there been anything on getting
where it originated from?”

“
They have nothing on its origins or
destination, and if it had achieved its objective!”

“
Have they found anything to indicate
it has intelligence or if there is anything aboard?”

“
They discovered its forces
deliberately melted the ice and allowed the water to freeze over
it, and that it hid itself away, and it is believed something
deadly is buried away in its interior!”

Part I

Ice Station X1

Chapter 1

The Alien
Encounter

Out of the silent empty Antarctic night
high-powered rifle blasts were astonishing, especially in the fatal
blizzard engulfing Willis! The explosions sounded so powerful he
believed they were using some form of powerful explosive in the
bullets!

Whoever was after him had to be crazy and out
for the kill, and stupid for entering them into such a blizzard and
fury of snow! He could not realize who was there and just accepted
that they might be trying to kill him for being a leading scientist
at the ice station!

Ice Station X1 had to be located in the
coldest and most remote place on the planet! Even in the summer the
place had been deadly cold to him! As far as he was concerned there
was nothing there to kill for and nobody there that he thought
capable of doing so! It and the coldness made him cringe, and
blindly rush on through the blinding blizzard, lost.

A loud explosion blasted out and a bullet
thudded somewhere nearby and he had to run through the dark snow
landscape for his life! He dared not use his light and he could
barely see anything!

The men could be heard over to his side and
he realized that they could have infrared sights and he just dived
into a pile of snow, and buried himself deep. Surely they would not
find him!

Once he realized that nothing had happened he
started to enjoy the rest and being free from being attacked. His
mind raced through what had occurred! Yet he only realized that the
location that he strolled into had been a region that nobody at the
ice station went in, and he started to wonder what was there.

Why would they go to such lengths to kill
him? What could possibly be there? What could be there in such a
desolate place?

When he finally left where he was and started
to return to the ice station, he started tracing where he had been
where they had appeared and started looking around, and strolled
around and found something buried beneath a region on flat snow,
which he wiped the snow and ice away from and revealed a wooden
cover.

Below it he found a vast hole going straight
down deep into the ice below, which had clearly been hollowed out
with some large powerful machine, which he had not seen there. Yet
the region was vast!

Who had dug such a hole? And he wondered if
it was by some foreign country that intended to destroy the secret
military station?

It was then that he discovered an old rope
and harness buried away in the snow, and knew he had a way to climb
down, and he decided to investigate it, while avoiding being killed
by them or the blizzard! He was sure it had been dug for a reason
and that something was just below him!

He swiftly attached the ropes and fitted the
harness around him and shifted in, and turned on his light, and
covered the top with the wooden cover.

Mind-bending sounds and echoes from the
haunting blizzard screamed down through the ice shaft with fury and
left him stunned at the dangers, and no matter how he tried to
shake it off and contemplate identities his thoughts never formed
stable recognitions of what was occurring in the blizzard
above!

The ice that the tunnel went through
fascinated him as it was different from the regular ice below the
ground there! It looked to him to have been formed from water that
had melted and had been frozen quickly afterwards!

Clouds of powdered snow and snowflakes
swirled down and through the beam from his light and he continued
to release the rope, edging him down, seeking to discover what was
below.

He realized that he had avoided being killed
after all and wondered if he was going to be killed later, when he
climbed back up and went outside.

He groaned as he moved down, realizing the
mistake he was making and the trouble he would have getting back to
the surface and trying to find the ice station in the dark.

He stopped and dangled about on his rope and
examined how the tunnel had been cut, while glimpsing parts of the
shaft above, and was surprised again at how large and expensive the
equipment used must have been.

He had always wanted to investigate some
great mystery and it had even helped lead him into becoming a
scientist, at such a far out desolate location, and he wanted to
explore more. He had wanted to explore and discover new things of
value and greatness, and perhaps even be remembered in history
somewhere!

What interested was why they had gone to such
lengths to kill him, and why he had not known about the tunnel!
Surely they had a way of examining below the ice and would have
done it while constructing the underground ice station, especially
with it being of so confidential and belonging to the military.

What treasures could be hidden away in such a
region, with it being one of the last not properly explored
regions?

What was he dealing with though? Why were
they trying to kill him? Were they protecting something that they
had hidden there?

Something of unfathomable unidentifiable
nature could be under him and he had to explore it!

As he lowered himself progressively he
started to realize the depth of it and that there could be
something there!

Something could be secretively built there
with the help of the Russian spies in the ice station, and to be
used to destroy the entire ice station in an atomic war!

He realized the implications of the find and
that he would have to check what was there, no matter what! He
could not let it go, and he had to survive and give the information
to someone.

Willis was blinded by the black abyss below
him as he lowered himself down through the cold tunnel, uniquely
drilled with an incredible precision.

He gripped the rope hard, but spun round, and
fixed his foot against the tunnel wall to stop it, and looked up to
the top of the tunnel and just saw darkness there now, and looked
and listened to what was there, and realized that if he was caught
there they could cut the rope and let him fall to his death at the
bottom. If he never died he would starve to death there!