The Antarctic Discovery (Novelette) (10 page)

Some form of
battle had clearly taken place there! There were bodies lying
around everywhere! The snow around Weaver was too deep and the
terrain virtually impossible to get quickly across!

It was
incredible that they had actually not landed later than when the
sun was going down.

What had
happened? It looked like the seen of a small battle!

They approached
slowly and they saw that many of the Russian renegade gunmen had
been killed there! It proved that they were more maniacs than he
had predicted! They could easily have met and held up the
inhabitants of the ice station with guns. Instead they had a battle
with them!

He was also
sure that they had not been able to do what they had intended! He
was sure that someone had warned them about their arrival!

He believed the
pilot and airplane that was to land was with them, and would see
them if it appeared and landed.

They swiftly
shifted about the small ancient building structures, searching for
signs of them, and found that they had all gone into one building,
which was the largest there, and they searched all the other
structures and about the base and surrounded the building.

He thought of
the incredible operation the Russians must have carried out getting
the voyager at the other ice station and wished that he had been
part of it, and the digging up of the black object beneath the ice,
and them digging out the cavity.

The amount of
equipment and men they must have used must have been tremendous,
and they must have gone to incredible lengths to get people into
the ice station, and to monitor it and prevent them discovering
what they had been doing.

He wondered how
long they had been there trying to enter or make contact with it,
and then a stray scientist from the ice station entered the cavity
and simultaneously made it into the voyager.

He recalled
when one of the Russian scientists had told him and that Willis had
entered it and it had shown him its flight in space!

He was sure
that it had wanted something, and perhaps it wanted someone to
pilot it, and he was sure he never gave it what it had wanted.

He went over
and over it through his mind trying to grasp some clue that would
show him what it wanted.

He examined the
soldiers ahead of him moving in closer, preparing themselves for
action and were ready.

A loud blast of
a gun exploded out and he saw one of the front soldiers beside
Commander Craven was hit and Weaver swiftly moved behind a wall,
preparing for the gunmen to attack.

The bullet had
instantly killed the man and he was heaped over the snow and he
realized that someone had blown their cover and they had given away
their element of surprise, and he realized it was one of the
Russian soldiers from the Russian base that had given them away! He
then realized that they could very well be in it with them! The
Russian soldiers with them had not been checked out and had even
been with them!

It was lucky
there was cover for all the soldiers and they rushed into position
and he watched the Russian soldiers and what they did and wondered
what he was missing about them.

Suddenly
soldiers rushed forward fast shouting at them to throw down their
guns and started blasting at them with everything, and bullets flew
out everywhere hitting the snow all about them, and the gun battle
stopped and they shouted to them the gun battle was over and they
all moved in.

He rushed in
the building and realized that there were only six of them left,
and two were dead on the floor!

A Russian
soldier with them translated what the Russian gunmen said and they
started questioning them, and Weaver noticed that he was holding a
hidden conversation with them as he asked their questions and gave
their replies.

“
Where
and when will the airplane land?” Commander Craven asked them, and
the Russian translated what he said and replied.

“
It is
not going to land until they ask it to! They cancelled it landing
until the alien sphere was found!”

“
What
does he mean by that?” Commander Craven replied.

“
After
their battle with the people at this ice station the person that
had it was killed and someone took it, and nobody saw who or what
he did with it!”

Weaver listened
confused! How can someone lose an alien artifact? Then he
considered what size it was!

“
How what
size was it?” Commander Craven asked, amazed, wondering what the
hell it was.

“
He does
not know!”

“
How did
you see anyone carrying it?”

“
No! It
was in one of the dead men’s pockets!”

It was clear
that the people that saw it were now all dead, except the person
that took it!

Commander
Craven was staggered, and clearly wondered how they could they
possibly have an ultimate weapon capable of destroying the world in
someone’s pocket?

Someone there
took it so they searched all their pockets and belongings,
including the bodies, and they found nothing and decided to stay
the night!

Chapter 20

The Battle

They had been at the Russian ice station two
days searching everything and had not found the slightest clue to
its whereabouts, while they curiously watched the Russian soldiers
with them!

There clearly were soldiers amongst them that
thought they could get hold of the alien sphere and sell it!

Their mission was a disaster, even though
they had killed or captured the remaining renegades!

The ice station, huts, and buildings were
small and cold and he had never slept in anywhere so cold, which
was exaggerated by the coming winter! He could see now why the
people that stayed in such places and conditions were rugged and
hardy.

The Russian food supplies were feeble and
left them longing to get out of the place, and to find the alien
sphere!

Who the hell took it? What had they done with
it? Where had it ended up? And what the hell was it? Its size made
everyone gasp! What if they got its technology and increased its
size?

People were now investigating each other, and
he had been watched by just about everyone, and he himself had
listened in on others and followed their movements!

He noticed some of the places in the
structures were dirtier and in many he had to sweep away webs and
he realized that the place was not being searched as much as they
were making out, and he eventually put it down to them
concentrating in the main areas! So he started looking in the areas
that they missed and looked for signs that someone had visited
there and hid it.

Reeves joined him searching an old hut with a
rusted discarded snow vehicle in it, and they rummage through the
junk!

“
Well,
”
Reeves announced, breaking his
silence with him.
“
We now know that the guy that took it has not
been here!”

The place looked as though it had been
untouched for decades and he examined different things to see what
they were, and their uses, and if they had been recently used.

“
Look at this monster!” Reeves
announced, jumping into the worn seat of the vehicle.

“
Any fuel?” he replied, wondering if it
could be used.

“
What’s that!” he spoke, looking
closely at the controls. “Someone has recently checked it! The fuel
meter has been cleaned recently!”

Weaver checked it to see the petrol in it and
saw it had been checked, and realized the person had been planning
to use the thing and checked it and the mess that it was in! There
was so much rust and dirt over it that it looked unusable.

It was like being at an ice station on
another world with the strange sun and snow, and appalling
coldness. He recalled a story that he had once read of Artic
explorers all being found frozen to death! Which made him consider
if there was such a condition that could instantly freeze people
and everything at the one time? He had seen things there that had
suggested it! There were immense waves that were entirely frozen!
How could you freeze an entire large falling fast moving wave
without instantly freezing it! There were cases of large amounts of
animals and humans being found frozen at the same time!

The place was like it was haunted at times;
creaking and rustling from huts, ice shifting, and strange
whistling breezes.

He thought of all the years of people living
there and it interested him. What kind of life did they have? Why
did they stay in such places?

The place must be one of the most empty and
empty of life places that there could be on the planet! He wondered
what it was like at its worst, freezing in drifts of heavy snow,
silent and empty of life as was possible. Even indoors with the
lights on at night there were strange haunting dark shadows and
glows that held secrets and dangers!

They finished searching the rubbish and
structure and moved out together and wandered about before joining
the others having their meal.

Most of the people around the dinner table
looked startled and tired and looked as if they wanted to leave the
place, and he realized again the difference there was at the proper
ice station.

Even the Russian base looked as though it had
things wrong with it and that many of them would have preferred
going home, when their mission was complete.

He noticed that Commander Craven looked
happier, but still depressed, as though he had achieved something,
but he could tell that it was not enough. Yet he still looked the
happiest there!

“
Anything new?” one of the soldiers
finally asked, smiling.

“
We think we may have who was behind
taking the alien sphere!”

Everyone looked up, and Weaver gasped at the
attention that it got from them, and especially from the Russians
there and he sensed how desperate they had become!

“
Where is he?”

“
He was one of the dead! We searched
him and everywhere he was seen!”

“
Have you anything on what he was
like?” another soldier asked curiously, looking at the Russians for
reactions, jokingly.

“
I got some information about him from
the X1 Ice Station, and from the Russian base, and from
civilization
!”

He showed them a sheet of printed paper, and
when the others had finished looking at it blankly Weaver managed
to get a look at what was on it and realized there was little
there. Yet as he was handing it back he realized it said that he
had an interest in vehicles and rebuilding them and he wondered if
he had been the one that had cleaned the petrol meter on the
vehicle, as he surely would have been the most likely person for
wanting to leave there!

They had other vehicles there and he wondered
if he might have hidden it on one with other things, which he
intended to take if he left there in it. Would they actually look
there?

Suddenly he noticed that some of them thought
that he had found something and he realized that he had reacted too
much, and he decided to play safe and not check there until at
least the following day. Even if there was a chance that someone
found it first! The Russians there were desperate and would try
anything, and he wondered again what Commander Craven was up to
allowing them to stay there! They were a menace to them and threat
to their lives, and the end of them if they got unlucky!

He tried to work out what Commander Craven
wanted with them and was sure that they he might consider at least
one of them knew where it was!

Chapter 21

The Search

When he finally searched the vehicles he was
on his own and he started to realize the true danger if he found
it! What the hell were they actually looking for anyway, and what
would he do with it?

He finally started to lose interest and just
completed his mission anyway, by checking the vehicles swiftly and
intensely and finished by checking the vehicle with the cleaned
petrol meter, and never realized how dark it had actually been
there and had a bad time seeing properly!

When he finished he wondered why the petrol
meter had been cleaned anyway! Then he started to realize that he
could have thought the petrol tank was a good place to hide it and
Weaver removed the petrol cap, which looked like it had been
loosened, and he wondered if he could have traveled with it in the
tank, without it stopping with it there! Not many people would
search a petrol tank for something!

He used a thin pole to probe inside and heard
something rattle about, and felt it move about, and he looked about
him and found a second thin pole and used them to grasp the object
and pull it out the tank.

Once it was out he saw it could not be it and
that it was just a ball of rusted metal in a ripped up plastic bag
and he threw it away, and fitted the cap on and cleaned himself up,
and went for something to eat!

He realized that the ice station was a bad
place for a party or for an active life, and that there was little
to do there!

He wondered what would happen next! They had
to leave there, and the object would be lost and could be
discovered months or years later!

They could send in a team of people to search
everything, with specialized equipment.

Later when he was eating at the dinner table
one of the Russians burst in the door and started arguing loudly
with other Russians there, in Russian and so they could not
understand and come to any conclusions, and Weaver noticed that he
had a hidden handgun that he had not shown before, and he watched
him start an argument with Commander Craven!